Slipping
by A Profile Name
Summary: "Having overwhelming strength is boring." Saitama, a hero for fun, finds this to be his most common thought. He no longer finds any thrill in his hobby. Still, he can't just afford to stop being a hero. If heroes run, who will be left to fight? Maybe along the way, this hero might find something new to live for - reclaiming his slipping emotions, and maybe something more with them.
1. The First Punch

**This is an idea that originally came from me thinking of what a story without Genos would be like. But somehow, it turned into this big thing. I plan to post more chapters. Reviews would be appreciated, they really help to focus me. Expect more in the next week, or this week. Who knows.**

"Dialogue"

_'Thoughts'_

* * *

There stood two men. All around them, there was nothing but destruction, mayhem and chaos. The screams of people could be heard in the background, voices barely raised above the roaring of flames. Buildings were crumbling with giant holes ripped in them like a cannon had fired into the walls point-blank and debris rained down on the landscape below like snow. It was an apocalyptic scene. And the cause stood right in front of these two men. A freak of nature with a large, purple body chiseled beyond belief, perfectly unharmed with a sure smirk on its' face. A mysterious being, a monster, that had wrought destruction on this city: City A.

Yet, these two men stood strong. One had the symbol of a lightning strike on his cheek, and on the heels of his sneakers, too. He had a torn, dusted black tank top which exposed a bruised, painfully purple chest. Cuts and burns were all over his body, including his legs, which left him stumbling despite standing still.

"Smile Man…I've thought of everything I can, and I don't think we can defeat this monster. This is above A-class. It's impossible for us. Impossible for me." He spoke in ragged breaths, his usually slicked-black blonde hair frayed to both sides. "Damn it…when it really counts, I can't even do anything…!" He exclaimed in frustration.

"I know." The A-class hero identified as Smile Man replied. His simpler outfit, consisting of nothing but a red bodysuit with a smiley face on the front and a belt that was absolutely torn to shreds. He was breathing harder than the other hero. "I know that feeling too well, Max. The feeling that we're way out of our depth, and yet…" His hands which were gripping his weapon of choice, a giant kendama, tightly, despite the tons of burns that littered his arms. "You know that we can't back down, Lightning Max. Not only because the association sent us here, but we have more to do than just winning this fight." He grit his teeth, a rare occurrence for the usually calm-looking hero.

There was a closer noise behind them, the small, almost unnoticeable noise of a little girl's wailing. This is the noise that, despite the overwhelming, almost assured possibility of defeat, pushed the two A-rank heroes to fight to their last breath. It was even more natural than the last breaths they could possibly end up taking that day.

"You didn't even have to say it. This sort of thing should be second nature…" Lightning Max took up a fighting stance, arms raised and eyes narrowing.

"Because we're heroes." Smile Man followed up, raising his kendama to the air.

And with these final words, the A-Rank heroes, Lightning Max, Rank 20, and Smile Man, Rank 27 launched off toward the monster, filled with determination to defeat it.

In a simple response, the monster grinned viciously, showing of a row of jagged spiked teeth, while both of its' clawed fists expanded with sickening cracks, growing to impossible proportions. They were nearly ten to twenty times the size of the heroes standing in front of the monster. Killing intent flooded the area in a wave, and the monster's eyes grew to be piercingly red.

"**Finally done preparing for your death, I see. You foolish humans. No matter how much you struggle in the end, I, Vaccine Man, shall cure the earth of your presence. DIE, LIKE THE VIRUSES THAT YOU ARE!" **With these words, the monster, Vaccine Man, bore down on the courageous heroes.

* * *

"How is it looking?!" A black suit asked from behind a set of holographic displays, urgently leaning over his desk to set eyes on another suit, this time a female operator who was staring at her own set of displays with a worried face. "Damn it, I asked you what is going on, operator Naomi?!" The man reinstated, banging his hands down on his desk. "Smile Man and Lightning Max reported in fighting the monster a half-hour ago, and since then, we haven't heard anything from their end! What we do know, however, is that the destruction of City A is continuing!" He brought his hands up to his balding grey hair, staring up to his monitor in dismay. A large video feed was projected to the middle of the room, currently displaying nothing but white noise.

"Not to mention the drone stream is off, how can we confirm anything at this rate?!" He looked down at the woman sitting in the front of the room. "Operator, I asked you..!" Before he could continue his rant, the feed in the middle of the room came back, showing Vaccine Man wildly firing at the cityscape, with a collapsed and unconscious Smile Man and Lightning Max in the background. There was a tense silence in the room.

"Lightning Max and Smile Man are currently considered out of commission." The operator, Naomi responded with a hesitant tone, breaking the silence. "City A's destruction levels are at 25%. The threat level has been elevated to high demon, possibly dragon, if this continues. I…I believe that we should attempt requesting S-Class assistance." She clarified all of this in complete silence.

"No." A voice from behind them spoke, causing both to turn back. There was a man with short black hair and brown eyes wearing a suit similar to theirs. His most distinguishable feature was a "We can't involve the S-Class in this. If our A-Class can't dispatch a threat of this level, then the public's faith and approval in the Hero Association might fall significantly So, for now…"

The older man nodded slowly, and Naomi looked forward to the screens. "Understood." The Z-Branch operator spoke. "Searching for A-Class heroes to disp-"

"What do you mean, 'we can't involve the S-Class in this?" Another voice popped up from behind them, as a door opened leading into the room. "You mean, you plan to involve rejects who can't even finish moving up their ranks finish off this job? Implying that, compared to the abilities of a lowly A-Class, I am somehow less fit for the job?" A clearly feminine, high-pitched voice spoke, causing everyone in the room to collectively shudder. All kept quiet except for the bearded worker, who raised his hands up in defense.

"N-no, Miss Tatsumaki, we weren't saying that, we were just, t-the public opinon,-"

"I don't need to hear any of your useless mumbling. I'll be taking care of this problem like it should have been handled, from the beginning. Useless lackeys." The presence left the room, and a collective sigh of relief was had.

"Naomi, cancel that hero request. We have a more than capable hero on the way, already…" He spoke, noticeably dejected.

Naomi nodded and returned back to her station, typing away. The previously panicked mood in the control room had now disappeared, but she still had her own thoughts running through her mind.

_'What an incredibly short-tempered hero…'_ She thought, with an obvious look of exasperation betraying her usual professional appearance.

* * *

In a small apartment in the completely abandoned section of a certain City Z, there was a third party taking in the situation. A plain looking man, staring at his television with a bored expression. He flashed between multiple news reports talking about a rampaging city-destroying monster in City A. He hummed with a small spark of interest popping up in his head and he and sat up, turning around to head into the shadows of his apartment.

_'This monster could actually be kinda worth it if they're making a big fuss like this over it…plus, it'll kinda be a problem if it keeps rampaging like this.'_

"Guess I'll head out." He exited the abandoned apartment in a yellow and red jumpsuit, a white cape fluttering over his back, while he raised a single fist into the air. Compared to Vaccine Man's aura of death and seemingly mindless destruction, what came from this man was an aura of pure, unyielding justice.

* * *

Vaccine Man, who had long since reverted to his 'regular' form, stood far from the unconscious bodies of Lightning Max and Smile Man. He was still untouched, and grinned pridefully. He continued to effortlessly blow up the city in front of him with balls of giant purple light energy that whistled through the air. The monster gave a pause to his destruction for but a second, satisfied with his work. He turned back around to walk back over to the unconscious heroes with the purpose of finishing them off.

"To challenge the apostle of Mother Earth, you really were fools. If this is all the resistance the human race has to put up, then my job will be made much easier!" His focus immediately turned to the still crying girl, who hadn't even noticed the fight behind her, nor the approaching form of Vaccine Man. "Truly, humans break so easily in front of the mighty nature of Mother Earth's apostle!" His hands buffed up once more, with his right hand looming over the girl's defenseless form. Only with his shadow looming over her and his killing intent showing rearing its' ugly head, did she finally notice that something was wrong. She looked up from her cowering position, pupils shrinking in fear.

"M-Mommy, D-daddy…" Her voice broke, her entire body shaking in pure fear. She couldn't even find the strength to try and run, like her parents had told her to during a monster attack. She closed her eyes to prepare for the crushing pain of her body being torn to pieces…but it never came. Slowly, she opened her eyes. Above her was a plain-looking face that she'd expect to see on one of her grandpas or uncles, almost completely clueless. Despite his face, though, she could clearly feel the firmness of his grip, and the sureness in his contradictory blank voice when he simply said,

"Go ahead and take a nap. I'll handle this." Placing her down beside the two downed heroes before turning to the monster. The last thing the girl remembered was the smoothness of his bald head in the sun, overshadowed by the fluttering of his white cape. Exhausted and shocked, she passed out. This just left the man and the monster to face off.

"Hmph." Vaccine Man withdrew his fist and threw a curious look at the caped bald man. "You actually managed to move through that attack. I'll give you credit for being fast. Just who are you?"

"Saitama." He responded, arms folded. "Just a hero for fun. It's a hobby."

"Eh?" Vaccine Man cocked his head to the side, a noticeable vein forming in his forehead. "Just what kind of bullshit backstory Is that?" He lifted his head up, as if looking down on Saitama. "I, meanwhile, have a story much more superior. I AM VACCINE MAN!" He passionately placed a clawed fist against his chest. "Mother Earth is a single living organism, and you humans are nothing but viruses sickening her and killing her from the inside out, stealing away her life force!" All of the muscles across body began to bulge up, with his body rapidly growing in size by large increments during his speech. Saitama meanwhile watched with a blank expression, clearly unimpressed or unaffected. Probably both. **"In order to destroy the civilization built from exploiting her resources and restore the natural order of things, Mother Earth in all her infinite wisdom, HAS GIVEN BIRTH TO ME!" **Vaccine Man now ascended to almost the height of a large building. **"AND YOU SAY YOU DO THIS FOR FUN? FOR FUN?! HOW DARE YOU CONFRONT MOTHER EARTH'S VERY OWN APOSTLE FOR THAT MUNDANE AND RIDICULOUS REASON?!" **He easily towered over Saitama, nearing the height of a skyscraper, eyes glowing red as a concentrated laser beam and veins popping out all over his grotesque, muscular, giant form. **"YET, WHAT COULD BE EXPECTED FROM MERE HUMAN SCUM-" **

In a flash and a spin, Vaccine Man's monologue was cut short, along with the upper half of his body sent flying away somewhere into the world. His innards rained out around the area and hislower half fell limply to the broken concrete. Saitama, though, did not celebrate. He looked down at his fist with a pissed-off expression, smoke rising from his red-gloved hand.

"No, not again…" He began, in near disbelief, before looking to the sky and yelling out, "JUST ONE GODDAMN PUNCH AGAIN?!"

With his exclamation, the dust-covered girl muttered out a last word in her sleep.

"Sai…ta…ma…"

The hero for fun was drawn from his frustration at the girl's words, and sighed, looking down at her.

"Let's take you to the shelter, you'll probably find your parents there." He sped off with her in his hands with the world moving at a blur around him. He completely missed the two unconscious heroes in the background.

What Saitama had also not seen, however, was a pair of piercing, green eyes, that had been watching the entire scene far from above.

* * *

_'Three years since I started training…'_ Saitama thought to himself while he mindlessly filling up his basket with groceries. A girl with chin-length brown hair with short bangs passed by him while staring at the completely reflective surface of his bald head, giggling to herself.

'_Now I'm the hero I wanted to be, unbeatable and able to defeat any monster. So…what's wrong? Why do I feel so empty…?'_ He sighed, walking up to the cashier and ignoring the annoying brat pointing out at him and his baldness, alongside his hero jumpsuit.

"That will be 482 yen, sir." She spoke, staring expectantly at the caped man. Saitama put down a 500 yen coin without thinking too much of it, only for him to look up thoughtfully.

"Hang on a 'sec, I think I've got the 82 yen." He muttered, reaching into his simple green coin purse and grabbing the coins. Annoyingly, his hands jiggled alongside the contents of the purse, but that was a small setback. Deep into his yen-grabbing, Saitama didn't notice as every customer and employee alike fled the shop.

"Alright, I've got the change right he-" Saitama paused and looked up, noticing that the store was completely empty. He slowly turned his gaze to the walls, and didn't have any reaction as a foot the size of a city block moved by, ripping the roof and walls from the building. He looked over to the left with his eyes tracking the giant monster that was now casually swiping aside cities in the far distance. "I should probably deal with this and go back home…" He launched off towards the beefcake of a monster with his trademark emotionless expression, not before collecting his 582 yen and placing it back into his purse.

_'582 yen is way too much to lose on groceries I didn't even get.'_ Saitama thought as he flew through the air at breakneck speeds. Behind him, he'd left a bewildered witness who had been hiding under one of the cashier's stations. It was the same girl who had laughed at the hobby hero just minutes ago, with her hand on a complex-looking phone-like device that had the insignia of an eagle spread-winged across it. Her eyes were completely wide as she watched the monster savagely beat down on the bald man she'd laughed at only seconds ago, creating a crater comparable to an asteroid impact. That was it. Surely he was dead.

Yet, her eyes ended up growing only wider at seeing him easily defeat it in a single punch, with not a single hint of damage on him.

"I must've imagined that from the stress of the job…" She muttered in a shaky voice, as she dialed up a number on the piece of technology. Even vacations were never vacations, especially when you worked in one of the most active branches of the Hero Association.

* * *

Another single punch and one accidentally destroyed city later, Saitama was on his way home, with the sun having completely vanished from view, replaced by the shimmering moon.

_'Monsters and evil things in this world aren't going away.'_ Saitama thought, while walking through the slums of City Z. _'Nothing's changed since I became a hero.'_ He continued on aimlessly._ 'I'm not sad that I haven't made a difference, but I've been bothered about something else entirely…'_ He noticed a small cat grooming itself, and stopped to kneel down and reached a hand out to the kitten. It reeled back and scampered off, leaving Saitama staring into blank space.

_'Fear, love, nervousness, anger, hope, dread, panic…as the days go by, I can barely feel them. It feels like I've lost something essential to being human.'_ He paused, as some mechanical car monster stepped out, going on the usual monologue. It all droned right through Saitama's ears. _'Before I used to get all those emotions and more whenever I fought. But now…'_ He easily tore through the monster in a single effortless punch, leaving its' remains strewn over the road as he continued on internally. _'I feel nothing, because every problem is just instantly ended…with one punch.'_

He sighed, and closed his eyes. "Eggs over rice sounds good for dinner…" He headed off into the quiet night.

* * *

Silently, Saitama stepped into his apartment, closing the door behind him.

_'It's always the same thing now…'_

His hands became busy at work washing the muck from the gloves of his outfit.

_'I come home, completely uninjured, and just wash my gloves.'_

He moved to the bath, soaking in the water and staring at the wall.

_'Fighting monsters, I don't even feel like my heart's in it anymore.'_

He worked on the simple dish of eggs over rice, hands fumbling a little bit to catch an egg that had almost dropped.

_'Cooking eggs over rice is more of a challenge than fighting 'the strongest monster' every single week.'_

After lazing around and watching some television, alongside dinner of course, Saitama turned off the light and tucked into his futon for the night.

_'I just do this hero thing as a hobby, so it's fine as long as I get a kick out of it…but what happens when I can't even get that anymore?'_

He thought back to his first fight of the day, seeing the unconscious heroes and saving the little girl. The little girl, at least…remembering her peaceful expression after he'd dropped her off at the shelter. He stuck around just to make sure she got to her parents and had watched the reunited family enjoy a small moment together. Things like that – they still slightly brought the corners of his mouth up, but it wasn't nearly enough to be called a smile. Even if they were moments he could no longer experience for himself.

_'Doesn't matter. I'll leave all that complicated stuff to tomorrow's me. Time to get some shuteye.'_

Saitama yawned, scratching his chest, and let himself drift off to sleep.

* * *

_Hero Association Branch Z_  
_Control Center_  
_Nighttime_

"You." A small girl with curly, green hair entered the Association HQ's control room. It was a large room, filled up to the brim with stations showing off holographic projections of cities, the statuses of heroes currently in and out of battle, monster bounties and current threat levels; a large array of information was portrayed on the screen. There were at least 15 people working in the center, including the Z-Branch's main operator, Naomi.

The surprise visitor, ignoring the shocked stares, called out to the man standing in the middle of the room like she was calling over a servant. He was an employee known not by his real name, but just by the moniker 'Bearded Worker', thanks to his one discernable feature – his beard. The girl in question was floating in the air, surrounded by a light green aura and wearing a long-sleeved form-fitting black dress, which had ends that somehow were kept floating and simultaneously held down by an invisible force. It showed just enough to reveal her slender legs.

"Pull up the video feed of the attack on City A, the one from two days ago, now." She spoke in an authoritative tone to the man, despite him technically being above her, as an employee of the association versus a hero.

"Y-Yes, Tornado." He replied without resistance, navigating through the records on his personal computer and clicking the file. He looked curiously to the floating hero, who was intensely watching the footage. It held a birds-eye view of the entire scene, and showed Lightning Max and Smile Man being soundly defeated by Vaccine Man, only for there to be a jump-cut to the monster's guts spilled all over the concrete. There stood an extra figure, however, a blonde man who had three scars over his eyes, staring silently down at the destruction with shopping bags in his hand.

"Originally we had just sent Lightning Max and Smile Man to calm the situation, but before we'd known it, they had been defeated. So-." He began, only for Tatsumaki, the Tornado, to shoot him an annoyed look.

"I know that already. I went to the scene, you idiot! What I want to know is what happened there…according to the association's drones." She clarified, folding her arms and leaning back, striking a rather sassy pose mid-air.

Bearded Worker laughed nervously and nodded.

"Right then, I'll get straight to it. As you can see, Mr. King seemed to be off duty and took care of the monster single-handedly! So fast that even our cameras could not properly register it, as well! It seems he did not even let go of his shopping bags, defeating the monster in a single attack!" Bearded Worker's face had changed quickly from nervousness to admiration, as he stared at the footage. Tatsumaki simply folded her arms.

"Hmph. You're acting like that's something special. Any S-Class hero worth their salt should be able to swat a fly like that off quite easily. I'd be more worried if King of all people actually struggled." She replied with a roll of her eyes. Bearded Worker sighed, causing her to throw him a nasty glare which quickly turned his head the next way.

"If that's all, I need to be getting back to the overlook of City A's repair. Excuse me." He bowed, only to be sent away with a dismissive shooing from Tatsumaki. For the life of him, he couldn't figure out why the Tornado of Terror of all people would want to review footage for what would be 'just' a demon level threat to her.

After Bearded Worker left to go over to other work stations, Tatsumaki just floated there, carefully and closely scrutinizing the footage with narrowed eyes. Especially at the part that was skipped over. Tatsumaki balled her fists, tempted to crush the worthless console, but left it, not after giving it a few cracks which caused Bearded Worker to quickly rush over with a helpless look on his face.

"Fine, then. That footage is worthless to me, anyways. What King could do in a few seconds, I could do instantly!" She folded her arms and flew her way out of the room, leaving everyone inside with many questions, but more or less focused on their own tasks.

Naomi, on the other hand, was left to stare at her own station, the information influx being easy to handle thanks to the downtime after the last threat. Her mind was on something different – an odd man she had seen on a trip to a supermarket the day before, when the city-destroying muscle monster had shown up. Again, King was said to be the winner, but she had been there, watching with her own two eyes..

While those in the Hero Association were assured of their results, both women had thoughts of their own. Particularly the Tornado of Terror, who continued to nonchalantly float through the corridors of the windowless building while gathering her thoughts.

_'If I hadn't seen it for myself, I would've thought it was just King cleaning up another monster, too, but…'_ She frowned, growing increasingly frustrated at the mystery man who claimed to be a hero, yet was someone she couldn't even find in the lowest, useless dregs of C class. She'd seen his ridiculous, plain face, his shiny egg-like bald head, and his stupid yellow jumpsuit, even heard his lacking introduction, which, at the very least, did not bring her to immediately shut him up for bragging, as most of the attention-seeking death wish types did. Yet, she hadn't even heard him say his own name, which annoyed her to no end.

A nameless 'hero', taking out a demon-level threat with an effortless single punch. _'Just who the hell is that baldy…'_ Wondered the Senritsu no Tatsumaki – the Tornado of Terror:

The Hero Association's current strongest hero.

* * *

**I always thought that background characters deserved some more time. So I decided to give them names and personalities and even made one pretty plot-important. This could be considered 'OC' but I know the tag pushes some away so I didn't put that. Plus this is a homage to OPM, not a giant AU using OCs. What do you think will happen next chapter? Let's find out in the Second Punch, together! **

**Question of the Chapter: What's your favorite One Punch Man character? **


	2. The Second Punch

**Back for a new chapter on whatever day I've posted this. There's just one review I really wanted to respond to, and make some things clear. **

**Cat Eyes In The Night – "Out of curiosity, are you gonna finish this story cause lately it seems like every story I get into is abandoned also I would argue this chapter is unnecessary since anyone reading this already knows about all this intro stuff."**

**I plan to finish the story, yes. But what I really responded to this review for was to argue against that last point. There were a lot of small changed details: bits of dialogue added or edited that weren't there, character's thoughts, screentime and conclusions for characters that never got it, and the whole Tornado plot point being set up. I know that it can be boring to read the Vaccine Man fight over and over again, but I'm a firm believer that everyone writes everything differently. It is as much of an intro to One Punch Man as it is to my story.**

**By the way, I want to say: Saitama doesn't care about things as much as he does in the original One Punch Man. The deterioration of his emotions is much quicker, and he will almost always try to let an enemy attack first so that he can test them out. **

**Anyways that's all I have to say. See you at the bottom.**

"Dialogue"

"_Thoughts"_

* * *

"…Hey, isn't this weird?" Naomi looked back at Bearded Worker, who merely raised an eyebrow in response to her worried tone.

"How so?" Bearded Worker responded, sitting down at his desk. Currently, they were the only two in the Hero Association Z-City Branch. On the large hologram that sat in front of both their desks, there was a visualization of cities mapped out, and a large black shape that slowly passed over them, heading right for City Z on the map. "It's been rainy and hot at the same time. Perfect conditions for mosquitoes to go out of control, right? All you need is some bug spray, maybe close a few windows, it's nothing big." He spoke with a confused tone.

"Sir…do you honestly believe that this outbreak of mosquitoes and the city-hopping mosquito horde is just a random happening?" She asked, with a blank face. "Excuse me for overstepping my bounds, but, I think that a giant mass of mosquitos, hundreds of dead and dried up animal bodies, and random people disappearing only to turn up as dried skin, is enough to blame a monster or some other third party. Most likely a bug-based one that controls the horde. And considering the fact that it has the possibility to take out large chunks of cities and wildlife, I'd classify it as a Demon level threat, just to be safe. Even if we don't have an ID on our mastermind." She spoke, typing away at her keyboard. All the while, Bearded Worker just grew more and more red, clearly embarrassed, almost drowning in a nervous sweat by the end of her explanation.

"R-right, Operator Naomi, that goes without saying." He cleared his throat and straightened up. His face went from red to normal and he displayed the same professionalism that one expected from an army general.

"And because it goes without saying, then…?" She furthered, still staring down the proper looking official.

"Ah…yes, order a closing down of City Z, effective immediately!" He stood up, hands held behind his back.

_'That's more like the boss that I know. He's been so shaken up ever since that back-to-back encounter with the hero, Tatsumaki. He just needed a little push to get back on his game, is all.'_ Naomi smiled for a second, but that smile quickly turned to a more serious expression as she turned to her monitor.

"This is an official emergency order. All citizens of City Z are to stay indoors, with all windows closed. The approximated threat level is Demon. I repeat, all citizens of City Z…"

* * *

A large black mass swirled throughout the empty City Z, almost glowing red. It convulsed and fluctuating like a wave. Even odder than its' movements, was the sound that came from it. An incessant buzzing that filled the entire area, overshadowing the repeating alarm that blared throughout the city. The mass lead straight towards the center of the town, converging onto a single figure that floated in the skies above.

"Ahn~!" A moan came from the center of the mass, which was glowing an eerie red. Slowly the cloud of black dispersed. It was not the giant mass of a single creature, but instead, each little particle turned out to be regular mosquitos, buzzing incessantly, still slightly bloated with blood. "Come on, my little helpers, that's not nearly enough for me." The figure that floated above the city seemed to bathe in the freshly deposited liquid, regardless of her disappointed words.

She could only be described as a mosquito girl: a body made mostly of exoskeleton that made her look near naked, with clear wings beating quickly behind her. All of her limbs ended in hooked appendages, along with human-like legs ending in extra forelegs. Despite this, her face seemed human, thrown off only by the large compound mosquito eyes on her head, with two antennae attached and a long horn.

She also had a rather voluptuous figure.

"There's no way I'll be satisfied with just this, I need way more, and I'm tired of all that animal blood~." The Mosquito Girl whined, crossing her arms behind her head. "In that case…why don't we get some of the citizens to come out and play, hmm?" She looked ahead into the city with a murderous glee painted over her face.

"Hey."

Her attention was then drawn to a voice from below. At first she looked pissed but her smile widened at the source. A plain looking man wearing nothing but khakis, a button up yellow shirt and a pair of loafers. It was the hero for fun, Saitama.

"Are those…flies?" His face slightly morphed into one of barely noticeable concern. "I just came down here to see where that annoying buzzing was coming from, and it's a bunch of flies. Are you one of those weird bug collectors?." He asked, pointing a finger at Mosquito Girl, who by this point just looked amused and slightly annoyed.

"It seems that our next meal has come to us, my little ones. And a rather easy one at that. Daring to compare my beautiful little ones to a lowly fly? That just won't do." She spoke menacingly, turning a hateful gaze to Saitama. **"Go and suck his life out!" **She held a clawed out at the blank faced man.

"Little ones? Man, you've got it bad." He slowly turned his gaze from her to the mosquito girl to the giant swarm of mosquitoes now heading in a bee-line for him. That thought of how they were moving gave him a small chuckle.

_'Heh, bee-line. Even though they're mosquitoes.'_

In the next moment, a giant amount of the mosquitoes simply fell dead, with their bodies spreading out around him and in front of him but never quite reaching him. Mosquito Girl's eyes widened, before slowly narrowing. All the remaining mosquitoes pulled back to surround the insect woman again.

"You…what have you done to my little ones?!" Mosquito Girl's eyes were widened and her words came out as a demand rather than a question. She had barely seen him move an inch, he just continued to stand there in that same stupid pose. But, if she looked closely, he was holding up something now…a small bottle….

"Oh yeah. Apparently this bug spray is super effective. They were talking about the mosquito outbreak on the tv, so I brought some in case." He looked down at the can. "But you know, you don't just throw your bugs at someone like that. What if they'd bitten me and I got a cold or something?" Saitama asked, with a raised eyebrow. Even though he didn't sound like he believed that, himself.

Mosquito Girl's jaw was left completely wide at his matter-of-fact statement.

"And, this has been _bugging_ me for a while, but you should put some clothes on. You look naked." He stated, giving a weak chuckle. "Get it? It was a joke about bugs 'cause of your flies."

"…" Mosquito Girl had nothing but silence in response to his words. "You…you just killed such an unforgivable amount of my little ones with _bug spray_…and all you have to say is…is…" She charged at the man, moving at an incredibly fast speed. **"A GODDAMN JOKE ABOUT BUGS?! AND YOU CALLED THEM FLIES AGAIN, DAMN IT!" **Mosquito Girl appeared in front of the man in a second, bringing her claws down in front of her to slash at the man's neck.

"Woah there." He stepped back, just out of range of her first slash. "Hold on for a 'sec." He pocketed the bug spray and looked up. "Alright so what were you sa-" He was cut short by his body suddenly being flung into the side of a building by an enraged, screaming Mosquito Girl.

"YOU…!" A guttural scream came from the depths of her lungs, and the Mosquito Girl dived head first into the building, following Saitama through the hole she had created by slamming him through it in the first place. Her claws tore at his still airborne-body, sending him flying out the other side of the building with ripped clothes. He slammed against the side of another building immediately after his body exited the first, body imprinted deep into it.

"YOU UTTER FOOL!"

Mosquito Girl was in front of him within only a few seconds, and kicked him down into the hard asphalt. The claws on her feet dug into his shirt and ripped it off during the kick. The force that Saitama's body exerted when it crashed had created a giant indent in the road. Saitama just lay there spread-eagled, blinking every once or twice while staring up at the sky.

"Look at you now." She spoke, hovering high into the air. "You're so frightened that you can't even speak. Where's all that attitude from earlier, hmm~? That attack…I'm surprised your arm didn't just go flying off, but, I think I'll try harder to rip it out its' socket this time~" She sweetly sang, and went to dive in for the man again, only to feel a blinding pain shoot through her from her lower body. "What the…?" She looked down at her leg, only for her eyes to widen. "My…" She had a distinct lack of her right leg, no, both of her legs were completely torn off. "_My_ legs were the ones taken?!" She exclaimed in shock.

Saitama slowly stood up from the hole and dusted himself off. "Aw man...and these clothes were such a good bargain, too." He held up her both of missing legs in his hands, and tossed them to the side. "Now I get it. You're the one who's been controlling all those mosquitos right? The horde they were talking about on the news. I guess that makes sense. You do look like a giant mosquito."

Mosquito Girl gulped. She'd thought him to be some random fool, but now that she had time to cool off after the loss of two of her limbs, she realized that something was off. For some reason, she couldn't imagine herself winning. She was always sure of her victories, but even now, she felt completely outclassed. This random bald guy had killed her mosquitos with bug spray faster than her eyes could see, and just casually stood up from her building breaking attacks. His clothes were damaged, but he was completely fine! If she didn't come up with something, she was dead for sure…! Who the hell was this guy?

"Oiii, bug girl. You going to keep floating up there forever, or am I going to have to come up there for you?" Saitama asked, slowly raising his right fist and tightening it. His eyes suddenly focused to look much more intense and fiery, along with his body suddenly becoming incredibly defined and muscled. "I still haven't…watered my cactus."

_'No, seriously, who the hell is this guy.'_ Mosquito Girl thought with a deadpan expression. "Fine…!" She grit her teeth, hovering even further up into the center of the sky. "The people in the city may be hiding, but," The buzzing that had been silenced since the beginning of their 'fight' began to grow loud, much louder than it had been before.

"Oh…?" Saitama looked at the monster girl with a slightly hopeful look. "You're powering up…go ahead, I'll wait." He lowered his fists to instead cross his arms, returning to his flat expression.

"Now, come to me, my little ones!" She grinned, and it was not long before she was surrounded by a giant ball of mosquitoes, large enough to cast a giant shadow over the city. "If I take the blood from every single animal in the area around this city, then you can't possibly hope to defeat me, no matter how fast or durable you are!" She exclaimed, red eyes glowing in the converging mist.

"Man, it's going to be a pain dealing with all these bugs…" Saitama brought his right foot back, planting it in the cracked ground below. He held his left foot steady and took a deep breath, uncrossing his arms and pulling back his right fist. "Please don't end in one punch…" He prayed, before unleashing his fist. At that same time, the Mosquito Girl let out a giant, maddened bout of laughter, and every single mosquito around her dropped down on the city below, flooding out the roads like water and covering every single building and road in sight. Saitama was swallowed by them…

Then every single Mosquito exploded.

They did not explode like they had been set on fire or detonated with bombs. Every single individual bug just suddenly exploded into an overwhelming pool of blood that splattered all across the city, to the floors and on the walls. Seconds later a giant shockwave could be heard, and a few of the buildings all around shook. Saitama had single-handedly punched the bugs into oblivion with the collective shockwave of his punch. "Heh…" Saitama had a small smile on him, even as his fist was smoking. One could assume he'd destroyed the bug girl, but his smile said otherwise. "Cool, you survived. Your legs came back, too." He turned around, where a transformed Mosquito Girl flew, the stripes along her body running jagged and her entire skin now red. Just as Saitama had said, her missing limbs had regrown.

"Even though my little helpers are gone, I don't believe I need them anymore." She smirked, turning to a building. "You couldn't possibly beat this strength!" She sliced her claws diagonally twice, easily cutting the building in half. "So, with this…I think I'll be taking your head!" Mosquito Girl seemed to almost just appear in front of Saitama. With a yell, her claws moved forward to cut alongside his chest several dozen times in less than a few seconds, her hands giving a flurry of slashes at him. Saitama weaved through all of them easily. With each attack he dodged his small smile began to slowly disappear. That is, until it was gone completely.

Saitama brought up his arms, only to be slammed against a building by the Mosquito Girl, who did not relent on her attack. In fact, she only got faster and more sadistic with her attacks, his clothes being sliced so much now that he was almost entirely exposed. The building behind him crumbled and fell over, sliced in half and cut to mere pieces. Mosquito Girl kicked him, sending him flying into the air with a rush of wind, dashing after him with maniacal laughter.

Slash after slash after slash, she cut at the hero, pushing him further and further up with just the force of her hits before kicking him down into the ground, again creating another giant crater in the road. Rocks fell over and buried him so that he was barely visible. The monster girl smirked and licked her lips, floating In midair. "What's wrong?! Can't attack? Too amazed by my new power? Then, I'll finish this!" Mosquito Girl dived down, claws ready to pierce through the hero's body….before she was suddenly stopped by a yet unseen force. She tried to fly left, then right, but was completely immobile. "H-huh? Why can't I move-?!"

Saitama sighed, slowly standing up while still holding the struggling Mosquito Girl's claws. He pushed through the rubble like he was just getting out of bed. "I was kinda hoping you had more than that, but it looks like you can't give me a challenge, either." A shadow grew over his eyes, and he pulled his fist back, causing the squirming Mosquito Girl to tense up and completely freeze.

_'N-no, I'm not ready to die-!'_ The Mosquito Girl was now desperately attempting to pull away.

"Stop attacking cities. Oh yeah, and wear some clothes." He threw his fist at her, letting go of his grip on her at the last second. Yet, he stopped just short of her face. The ground below him cracked even further, and the sheer force of his punch shattered every single window in the nearby vicinity. The Mosquito Girl went flying, crashing through multiple buildings and showing no signs of stopping as she disappeared into the distance.

"Bugs…suck." He said simply, looking up to the now clear sky with an emotionless stare. The clouds were completely parted, giving way to a beautiful blue sky.

_'Guess I should go home and put some clothes on, too.'_

* * *

Tatsumaki was doing nothing but floating over the cities while looking for something to do – even a weakling monster to crush for fun, until she happened upon City Z. More specifically, the center of the town. It looked like an intense battle had happened. Buildings were entirely collapsed, the ground was caved in and shredded at multiple places, and she could still feel a disturbance in the air, like something had carved straight through it.

_'Just what the hell did I miss out on…?'_ She began to slowly lower herself to the ground, where a familiar group of small humanoid robots were busy moving rubble and getting to work on buildings. It was Metal Knight's drones, the ones the Association always counted on to repair large amounts of damage done to cities.

Tatsumaki approached one and used her telekinetic powers to pick it up with a mere flick of her finger, turning it around to face her. Surprisingly, even though all the robots seemed to be following pre-programmed routines, this one spoke with a metallic drone.

"What is it that you want, Tornado of Terror? I am busy reconstructing the city, and I would prefer it if you'd not bother." The voice said plainly. No emotion could be shown, as the robot had nothing but three large red glowing circular marks on where a 'face' would be.

"I could care less what you prefer. Especially not when you're just sitting back in comfort somewhere like usual. I swear, even that pretty boy Mask would be more useful than you…" She huffed. "Anyways, I want to know what happened here." The robot was silent for a few seconds, before eventually replying.

"A demon level threat. The association does not know how it was dispatched, but this is the damage as a result. Now if that is all, I will have to ask you to leave." Tatsumaki flung the robot into a building like throwing away a piece of trash and she levelled her gaze with the completely broken city surroundings.

"A demon level did this? Bullshit." She ascended back into the air. "It couldn't have been the monster. That means whoever defeated it…" Her thoughts flashed back to the baldy she had seen in City A.

_'It must've been him again. That damn baldy. I still can't get him out of my head. That stupid face with his egg head...and I still haven't seen a signle trace of him, even if he's still moving around and pulling off stunts like this!'_ Tatsumaki looked about ready to bust a vein. flying off towards a giant monster that had suddenly appeared in the distance, towering high above the skyscrapers.

"Let's relieve some stress…"

* * *

Saitama yawned, slowly getting to his feet. He went through his usual morning routine.

Getting the willpower to throw himself out of bed to another boring day.

Brushing his teeth.

Getting a shower.

Throwing on either his costume or some regular outfit.

Eating rushed toast with butter for a simple breakfast. Okay, maybe he didn't eat buttered toast every morning.

Hoping the Subterraneans from his dreams actually showed up. That one was a kind of new goal.

And sitting down to watch the television until he thought of something to do. Or decided to fight some monsters. So, he sat there. And sat there, and sat there. He was even in his hero costume, hoping something would happen to stop him from being bored instead of having to go out and look for it. The television was talking about some sort of city-consuming monster, and how it'd been defeated, but he was barely paying attention by then and almost dozing off.

A few hours had passed, and at some point, he'd just turned off the TV and focused on reading a manga, occasionally stopping to scratch his head, as bald as it was. He only looked up when he heard the doorbell ringing, causing him to sigh.

_'Oh great, it's those newspaper salesmen again…'_ He got to his feet and walked over to the door, leaving his book behind on the desk. He slowly opened the door only enough so that he could peek through it. There was a person there he couldn't recognize. A woman.

There she was, with long shoulder-length black hair and sharp brown eyes. She was wearing a black shirt and red shorts, and sneakers that had the whole black and red thing going on, too. What got Saitama the most was her weird expression. Something between desperation and embarrassment, maybe? This was a weird salesman. Probably persistent, too. Saitama sighed before speaking up.

"Sorry, I don't want any newsp-" He began, only to be interrupted by the woman, who curtly bowed and shouted out,

"P-Please don't punch me!" She spoke, eyes tightly shut. Saitama reeled back at her sudden words.

"…Eh?"

* * *

"You know, I invited you in for tea 'cause it sounds like you've had it pretty rough for that to be the first thing you say," Saitama now sat opposite of the girl, who was fidgeting in her seat and looking down at the floor. Both had tea cups on their sides of the table. "But thinking about it, I don't really have anything better to do, so I guess it's fine if you stay for a while." He took a sip of his tea, letting out a relaxed sigh, then he leaned back. "So? What's your story, lady?"

The girl then looked up at Saitama's plain, clueless expression, and her eyes began widening. She leaned forward, gripping the edge of the table with her hands.

"Are you serious?! You don't know who I am?! You can't even tell by the voice, at least?" She asked, looking at the man with widened eyes. He placed a finger in his ears and yawned.

"Nope. Never seen you before in my life."

"But you fought me just last week!" A small hint of frustration.

"Nope, still don't know who you are."

"It's me, MOSQUITO GIRL! The one you just slapped through, oh, I don't know, A FEW HUNDRED BUILDINGS?!" She yelled at the top of her lungs. Saitama paused for a while, and his eyes widened just a bit enough to show recognition.

"Oh yeah. That one monster that had all those annoying mosquitos around her." He blinked and looked over her again, causing the mosquito girl's nervousness to come back as her memory of last week kept replaying over in his head. "…You're wearing clothes." He said, giving a small nod of approval before tilting his head.

_'T-That's the first thing he focuses on?!'_ Mosquito Girl was filled with absolute disbelief.

"Wait, how do you look like a human, then?" He asked, after a bit of thought.

"So it's straight to that, eh? The story of how I survived that hit? Well, be prepared, it's a long story-" She was immediately stopped by an outstretched hand from Saitama.

"20 words or less. I don't want to hear your long story." He said simply, before lowering his hand and motioning for her to continue. Mosquito Girl stared straight at Saitama who just returned her gaze unflinchingly. She released a deep breath.

"I get it." She cleared her throat. "When you hit me I had to use all the blood I'd collected to survive, undoing my entire transformation." Saitama looked pleased at this.

"19 words exactly. That was still cutting it close, but good enough." He took a sip of his tea before continuing. "Well whatever. Why'd you come here? You didn't plan on ruining the peace in the neighbourhood again, right? I like my quiet." A small shadow was cast over his face, causing Mosquito Girl to quickly shake her head, carefully hiding the trembling in her lower body under the table. "No? Then why the heck are you at my house? Wait no, more like, how'd you even find it? You're not some sort of stalker, are you?" Saitama shot the girl a worried look, which she shrunk back from with a face of slight annoyance.

"I just smelled your blood since I'm already used to identifying things by it! Besides, there's no reason I'd want to stalk a HUMAN of all things-"

"But you're one now."

"Shut up! I didn't come here to be insulted, and the last thing I want is for you to throw another punch my way I won't survive! I saw and experienced that monstrous strength firsthand, and I think that if I can become as strong as you, then maybe I can…" She trailed off, looking to the side, causing Saitama to look at her curiously, before she went to shaking her head. "No. Listen, I just need to become strong, and if I stick around you, I might be able to hide from some people…" She spoke the last part a little quickly. "So…please allow me to join and train with you!" Her eyes sparked with determination. Determination Saitama hadn't seen when he had fought her, different from the simple monstrous recklessness. Plus she'd survived the punch, even if it had made her shed her monster form. So maybe she had some potential? Maybe watching her journey would spark something in him?

Saitama paused, thinking over her words. "Hmm…sure, yeah, why not." He said after only a few seconds of deliberation.

"I-I'm prepared to offer up anything to gain your approva-wait, did you just say yes?" She stared back at him, jaw almost touching the ground.

"Yeah. Honestly, I need something to do these days, so I guess it might be some fun seeing how far you can get." Saitama spoke honestly, with his face leaning on his hand. "Don't expect deep lessons on how to be a good fighter or something though. I'm a hero for hobby and fun, not some old karate master. I'll just spar with you every now and then and help you where I can." These words put Mosquito Girl into a trance, and she stared down at her lap.

With that, Saitama looked down at her cup of tea, which was still entirely untouched. He brought a gloved hand over his mouth to clear his throat and pointed a finger at it. "You going to drink that? It's getting cold." Silence. Due to her lack of response, Saitama just leaned over the table to grab her mug and started drinking, giving out a refreshed steamy breath. "Ah…this stuff really makes me feel like taking a nap." He murmured.

Mosquito Girl was still lost in her thoughts, her eyes looking more focused on the ground than anything else in front of her.

_'Being a hero…is that something that's possible for me, too? With that guy around,'_ Her gaze flickered up to Saitama, who was drinking from her teacup with an incredibly laid back expression. _'It's probably the best option for survival. I can stay away from the House, gauge my progress against other monsters, and get stronger…then maybe…'_ She shuddered, pushing whatever thought was about to emerge away.

"My name…" She began while slowly lifting her gaze.

"Hm?" Saitama finished up the last gulp of the second cup of tea and turned his eyes to Mosquito Girl.

"My human name. It was…no, is, Mu." She clarified, finally meeting Saitama's eyes, only to realize how positively plain he looked when she wasn't on the wrong side of his punch.

"Saitama. So anyways, this means you're going to want to move in or something?" Mu gave a hesitant nod. " Okay. Just pull your own weight around here and pay rent. This isn't a charity." He stood up. "Alright then. If that's everything, then I'm gonna-"

"Wait, hold on…" Mu interrupted him, giving a few small sniffs. _'The smell of this blood…'_ She had stood in an instant with her eyes narrowed down. "Saitama, I think that we're about to have a few unwanted visitors. Now." She looked up to the roof, as a mantis-like creature jumped in.

"Gyahaha! I am-huh?" The monster began its' spiel only to be crushed against the side of the wall instantly, brains flying out.

"Don't just break other people's ceilings!" Saitama yelled, in a rare moment of frustration. Mu was left completely shocked, watching as Saitama simply opened the window and jumped outside. That could've easily been her if she'd just done one wrong thing…

"H-Hold on!" She recovered from her momentary shock and jumped out the window after him. By the time she'd gotten outside, Saitama had already dealt with a large amount of the attack force, with two monsters buried in the ground, butts sticking out.

"Geez, don't just go around breaking into people's places like that, okay?" He dusted off his hands. He turned around to Mu only to be dragged into the ground before he could say anything. His head was sticking out. A reverse situation of the fodder monsters he'd just beaten.

"To think that this weakling was the one who ruined Mosquito Girl's transformation…good work, Ground Dragon." A deep voice boomed from behind, prompting both Saitama and Mu to follow it. Mu immediately blanched while Saitama just stared. It was a giant tiger monster, arms bound by chains. Another monster breached out from the ground nearby, a small mole with the name 'Ground Dragon' on his chest.

"Saitama-!" Mu went to call out, only to feel a raising danger from behind her. She put her arms up near the side her head, and was sent slamming into the wall with a grunt, barely blocking the full force of a slam at the last second.

"**You do not have time to worry about that one, Mosquito Girl."** A generic robotic voice boomed from behind her. Her eyes widened as she beheld the familiar form of a giant metal armor-wearing cyborg gorilla**. "Dr. Genus has seen it fit for you to be destroyed for your failure, and the man to be retrieved for testing. I will carry those orders out, without fail."** He began to run at her, leaving her seconds to think.

_'Damn it…!'_ She began to run towards Armored Gorilla._ 'Fine! If Genus is going to send the damn third strongest against me just 'cause he thinks I'm weak now, I'll gladly take him on!'_ Both she and the gorilla threw a punch at the same time, a shockwave meeting at their threw another punch with his free hand, and Mu met it without flinching.

"I see you still haven't quit that stupid robot voice, you damned Gorilla!" The force behind the Gorilla's punch gradually increased at this. Mu bit down, hard, and pushed forward with all the strength her body could offer. She and Armored Gorilla's struggle causing the street to crackle and cave in below them. The sudden changing of the terrain threw Mu off for a second, and Armored Gorilla pulled back, delivering a full punch to her gut that sent her flying. She managed to recover mid-air, flipping over and landing on her feet, panting.

_'I can barely manage to keep up with his attacks. If I'll defeat him, I just have to test that new thing.'_

"**I see. You managed to hold on to some of your power, even though your form has been degraded to that of a human. Yet, even if you'd been at your best, the point still remains, you cannot beat me." **The Gorilla ran forward on all fours, his right fist moving in a blur to the side of Mu's skull. She lowered her upper body almost to the floor, watching his swing pass straight over her head like it was in slow motion. The force behind it was so great that the hem of her shirt was swinging wildly, like she was in a tornado. She quickly got to her feet and dashed right in front of the Gorilla, bringing her knee up into his stomach, leaving cracks on the centerpiece of his armor. Gorilla stumbled back, not ready for the sudden increase in her power.

"You know, Gorilla. Genus once told me that the reason he'd made me was to see how far the power of blood could take a human body. That's why he chose to put me together with Mosquitoes." Armored Gorilla sent another swing her way with his left arm, only for her to grab and push off of it, launching herself into the air.

"**You will not get away." **Gorilla pushed up off of all fours to follow after her, while she just kept talking.

"Even if I can't collect blood for power any more, I can still control it. I can feel it circulating in my body." She smirked, bringing her guard up as the Gorilla threw an uninhibited punch at her, sending her flying into the ground. It followed right behind, throwing a barrage of punches that only deepened the hole she had crashed in.

The asphalt around them cracked, shaking the foundation of buildings and digging up a giant cloud of dust.

"**I will not give you a chance to continue rambling. You will be eliminated, here." **The Gorilla threw one last punch, causing that area of the road to completely collapse and cave in. It landed back on the ground and stared at the dust-covered area of battle, face unable to be read through the helmet that hid its face. **"Secondary target, eliminated." **Is what he had meant to say. But the words never came from his mouth, only a surprised gasp as he was flung into the wall of a nearby building by a swift punch to the head. His helmet shattered on contact.

"**Impossible." **He spoke aloud, and attempted to get up, only to have his arms and legs forcefully torn off within but a second, thrown away and dented like pieces of scrap. The Gorilla's face now exposed, he had a very clear expression of surprise. He'd been defeated in a few seconds. **"Who-"**

"I'm right here, Gorilla~" A familiar voice sang, from directly in front of him. It was Mu, except she looked different. An aura of power was emanating from her, particularly from her eyes, which were blood-red. "This battle was over the moment you started underestimating me. I'm not the same demon-level threat I was a week ago!" She was smiling gleefully.

"**What…what did you even do?" **The Gorilla asked with wide eyes.

"I can completely control the blood in this body. I can make it push my body and my mind to its' complete limits. I only got this after that same man made me come so close to death…I suppose coming to the brink of losing my life sent me through a spurt of unexpected growth. In exchange for losing my power of taking other's blood, my blood is so strong, it's almost like I've got liquid magic flowing through my veins!" She slowly strode towards the Gorilla, who just sneered.

"**No matter what new tricks you've learnt, you won't be able to defeat the second strongest in the House of Evolution. You will still be eliminated." **The Gorilla sneered, quickly regaining his confidence. Yet, Mu wasn't shaken by his words at all. She just kept smirking, leaving the cyborg completely confused. Gorilla then came to understand all too well as a man wearing a plain white cape and yellow jumpsuit approached, holding a dangling eyeball. It was Saitama. And behind him were the bodies of all the monsters that had attacked, minus Armored Gorilla.

"This the guy you're talking about?" He asked, looking down at the Gorilla with a raised eyebrow.

…

…

…

"N-Now hold on, I was just following orders, I didn't actually want to kill you!" The Gorilla quickly reinstated, shaking his head. His robotic voice had completely disappeared, just leaving behind some regular sounding guy. Saitama scratched his head and threw the eyeball away somewhere in the background.

"Your voice disappeared." He pointed out.

"I-I just did it to sound cool!" He admitted. Mu rolled her eyes.

"Oh please. In what universe does that generic voice pass for being cool?"

Saitama hummed in what could be barely understood as agreement. "Wait, why did you attack in the first place?"

Mu folded her arms and turned to Saitama. "He's from the House of Evolution. The place where I was created. He and those others probably got sent to deal with you and clean me up for the mess I made." She explained. Armored Gorilla perked up from his position against the wall.

"That, and, the doctor is very interested in your body." This comment caused Saitama to pause for a second, before sighing.

"Sorry, not interested in dudes." He replied, only for Mu to bring a palm against her face.

"I think he means the doctor wants to study you because of your power, Saitama." She clarified, and Saitama simply nodded.

"Okay. So it's the evil organization of some crazy mad scientist. Let's go destroy this Haus of Revolution. You know where it is?" He turned to Mu. She was frowning.

"It's the House of – okay, you know what, forget it. Let's get going, Saitama." She turned to run, only to pause and look back at him. "But you should know, there's someone there who even you might have a problem beating…" Her gaze drooped, while Saitama could be felt only radiating happiness.

"SERIOUSLY?!" He grinned, unsettling the former Mosquito Girl for a second. After all, it was the most amount of emotion she'd ever seen him express. "Alright, let's go! I've got my hopes up!" He rose a fist in the air. Mu blinked at this sudden increase in energy, only to shrug and begin running off down the road. Saitama followed, both leaving a trail of dust behind them.

Armored Gorilla watched blankly, before a satellite dish-like object, most likely a receiver popped up out of his head and began to spin around.

"I need to contact the doctor…"

* * *

**And here we are at the end. Wonder how people will feel about me adding Mu, Mosquito Girl as Genos' replacement? This time we got more focus on the two big fights in the story, and less story threads being set up. **

**By the way, Genos isn't gone entirely, just to let people know. He just won't be at Saitama's side. Why? No reason, I just saw it in another story and decided to try my hand at it. Plus it gives me chances to do stuff like set up other characters. **

**Next question for reviewers, if anyone actually reads the full story nowadays than just skimming over it: **

**Who is your favorite girl in OPM? Honestly, I have to say it's between Fubuki and Tatsumaki for me. Creative, I know. If I had to choose another, I guess I'd go for Captain Mizuki.**

**Now, how will the HoE be taken down? Why does Mu not want to think on her past? Will Saitama's boredom be cured?! Find out, with me, on the third punch!**


	3. The Third Punch

**Alright, so again, here's another chapter. Everyone, thanks for your reviews and answers to my review questions. By the way, I guess I should answer how I'm pacing these Chapters. Each Chapter is supposed to be roughly equal to an episode. So, 12 Chapters = 12 Episodes. **

**Without further ado, let's get into it.**

"Dialogue"

_"Thoughts"_

* * *

Mu panted heavily, arms moving up and down at her side while she followed behind Saitama, who was casually moving in a brisk jog. Even though he was just jogging, he looked to be moving so fast that Mu could barely register him in her sight. "I knew…that you'd….want to go there right away ,but…" She let out a near-wheezing breath. "What human runs a four hour walk in a few minutes?" The two were moving through a largely crowded forest, rows of trees constantly passing by them in a blur.

"How else did you think we were going to get there?" He looked back at her with a raised eyebrow. "I can't fly or anything, you know." He explained matter of factly and then turned his gaze forward. Mu sighed at this statement, shaking her head. A small frown was plastered on her face.

_'I miss my wings…'_ She lamented, with the two hopping over a mountain of rocks to hover in the air for a second. Over the cliff face, standing extremely tall above the trees was a metallic building. Saitama smiled, looking down at it.

"That the place?" Saitama questioned, his blank expression turning into a slight smile. His question brought Mu's gaze up to the building. A bout of conflicting emotions rolled around in her eyes, before she eventually answered,

"Yes. It's the House of Evolution." She said, unusually quiet.

_'Sounds like a sore topic.'_ Saitama responded with a hum before homing in on the empty spot right in front of the House of Evolution. Mu landed beside him. Saitama brought a hand above his eyes, staring up and down the building. Meanwhile, the former Mosquito Girl could be heard behind Saitama's back inhaling harshly to catch her breath.

"One, two, three, four…" He counted up the building with a pointed finger. "Eight floors." Saitama paused and looked around for a few seconds. "I don't see an entrance anywhere, though."

"The top." Mu spoke up, causing Saitama to stare at the top of the building. "There is no entrance, but the Doctor assumed that most intruders would break in from the first floor and go down, to try and catch the House off guard by starting from bottom to top. It's meant to stop them before getting to the hidden bottom level. " She stepped forward, beside the caped hero.

"Soooo, you're saying that they have some sort of giant pre-boss lair ready for us?" He asked hopefully and clenched his fist. That ever so chilling stance causing Mu to shudder. She couldn't see his eyes, but she could feel the determination radiating off of him.

"Saitama, there are hundreds of dangerous traps in each level. We might get taken out before even reaching the top floor. Actually, it'd probably be better to just destroy the whole building than go through it." She looked beside her only to see a trail of dust leading upwards to the top of the roof.

"Saitama?" Mu blinked twice. Her response came in the form of a giant boom that resounded throughout the entire forest, causing her to jump. A giant dust cloud erupted from the top of the windowless building, spilling into the sky above.

Then, it began. Even from the outside, she could hear sounds of countless explosions and hundreds guns going off, alongside giant turrets and humanoid security robots who barely got to fire searing holes in the wall before being thrown out of the building like toys, leaving gaping holes. The chaos began to go from floor to floor, leaving Mu to simply stand there, stunned.

Mu went to take a step forward but hesitated, only for her to remember how determined the hero beside her had looked moments before plunging into danger. She bit down on her own tongue, using the pain to force her implanted fear of the House behind into the back of her head.

_'Right. I need to get in there, too. There's no way that I'm going to reach a level of power like Saitama's if all I do is stand back here and keep thinking on the past!'_ She ran towards the building and jumped to the top, her brown eyes sharing the same fire that Saitama's old self had owned on his own journey to power.

* * *

_Inside the building…_

"That was pretty easy." Saitama murmured to himself while looking around at the area he was currently in. After busting through 5 or 6 floors out of the eight, he figured that reaching to the entrance would've become harder and harder, but it was all pretty easy. Like he thought, stuff like this wasn't even slightly stimulating to him. He needed a live fight with a ruthless opponent. Not a mad scientist's kid toys.

"The heck's this?" What surrounded Saitama now were none of the piles of scrap metal robots or giant anti-artillery machine guns he'd dealt with just now, but was just a bunch of files all misplaced around the room, spread out over tables. Wordlessly, Saitama walked over to one and began to read. His eyes scanned over them quickly, with Saitama's face still remaining mildly disinterested. However, bit by bit, his eyes began to narrow, and the sides of his mouth turned downwards.

_'So this is how she ended up as a monster.'_ He placed the file back down onto the table.

"This Genus guy…seems like he needs to get a hobby." Within a second, all of the other research had been blown away into nothingness by a single raised fist from Saitama, along with the entirety of the building, and a large amount of the landscape. Sun shined in from all directions, with Saitama now left standing in a giant punch-induced hole in the cliff-face that went for thousands of miles.

_'Oops. I went kind of overboard. But those traps and stuff weren't that great anyways.'_ He was left looking down at his fist, thinking just what had overcome him in that moment to blast away the challenge of the other floors like that. Behind him, Mu hovered down, breathing heavily. She was unscathed, only due to the fact that she hadn't yet fully entered the building by the time Saitama just up and obliterated it.

"Saitama, why would you just blast away the whole building like that?! Didn't you say you wanted to test out the defences?" She asked, approaching the man with an irritated expression. The moment he turned around, she completely regretted ever yelling. His face seemed even more serious than usual, much more. A sense of foreboding was dripping off of him. Mu instinctively took a step back, shuddering as the familiar wave of power washed over her being.

"It was getting annoying to wait, so I punched it." He replied, and started walking towards the only remaining piece of architecture on the now wiped out ground – a metal hatch, forcefully peeled up and bent due to the force of Saitama's punch.

"Come on, let's go. Looks like a secret entrance." He began to climb down the hatch, with Mu following closely behind him.

_'Reminder…never ever get on Saitama's bad side.'_ She thought, while descending into the underbelly of the House of Evolution, with a still slightly worried expression on her face. It was going to be a long walk, and Genus, being backed into a corner like this, was sure to have released…

_'Him.'_ She shuddered at the thought, visibly. A cue that Saitama did not miss.

* * *

"How long has it been now?" Bearded Worker thought aloud, while watching over all the operatives in the room, clicking away at their keyboards and staring up at their hologram screens. The man leaned forward on his own desk, with his eyes closed. "Just a week ago, Mosquito Girl was defeated, by an unknown source. More worrying, she was confirmed a House of Evolution member by Zombieman's personal identification. He's the only hero on board with information on the organization. But this means…"

"The House of Evolution… it's still active." He trailed off, letting out a loaded sigh. Before he could press into deeper thought, a pat on his back arrived, causing him to open his eyes. A cup was laid out in front of him, right over his head. His favourite: completely black, no sugar, extra strong. He didn't even need to look behind him to know who it was.

"Thank you, Naomi." He picked it up by the handle and went to sip it, revelling in the feeling of liquid energy jolting through him. Said operator huffed behind him, as she made her way to his side and into his peripheral vision.

Her arms were folded, and she, too, had a thoughtful expression on her face. "I heard the name you were talking about. You shouldn't focus on them too much, you know? It's such a minor organization, and there are too many monster attacks nowadays to just focus on one evil guy's science club." She spoke jokingly, in an attempt to lighten the mood. Bearded Worker lowered the Hero Association branded mug, and gave a bitter chuckle.

"You and me both know we can't. Not after that incident. You remember, don't you? Everyone in here does." His eyes focused down on the mug, and he shook the cup in light circles. "The Carnage Kabuto incident." He muttered. With those four words, the entire atmosphere in the operations room, seemed to almost die. Naomi's face could not be seen, as she just turned her head away to look down at the ground.

"The day we learned that a single monster could destroy multiple cities for the first time…Blast had been our only S-Class hero back then, and we were mostly just made up out of what were basically B-Rank vigilantes calling themselves heroes." He chuckled and leaned back. "So nobody was ready when a monster went on a one week rampage across multiple cities, and completely obliterated some of them. Blast disappeared, and the rest of the S-Class as we knew it wasn't quite in place yet. Nobody was ready when it just left, completely destroying everything in its' wake. Nobody was ready when we learned that more monsters like him could exist." That name, Blast, also brought an odd aura into the room. Naomi looked back up at Bearded Worker with a small smile, and knocked him in the shoulder, playfully.

"Hey, try not to get too caught up on all that old stuff, alright? Metal Knight has already confirmed the location of the House with a drone, all we have to do is wait on his second relay of information so we can know when to move in. It's just a matter of time before those guys are brought down." She turned her attention to a screen in the middle of the room, that showed a dated picture of the building from only a few hours ago, all floors intact.

"Besides, the Hero Association's got plenty of strong heroes now. Even if we don't have Blast, we still have a lot of extremely strong S-Class, and A-Class, reserved for the worst of scenarios. Today's Hero Association is invincible!" Her youthful energy and positivity seemed to bring life back into the room, and she headed past the Bearded Worker to her own station below the stairs and to the center of the room. Seemingly reassured by her words, all the other operators turned to their stations and continued their duties.

An alert came through on Bearded Worker's screen, noted to be from Metal Knight himself. It gave confirmation on the House's whereabouts, and gave the okay to storm the building. Of course, Metal Knight was also requiring his payment in the Association's usual transfer of materials to the regular marked location the hero required. In more ways, Bofoi, otherwise known as Metal Knight, was more like a prized contract worker to the Association than a hero.

Still, there were a lot of things on Bearded Worker's mind.

The first was finding out what unregistered individual had single-handedly taken out a demon level threat. The second was thinking on what strike team he'd send to end the wretched House of Evolution. Most likely, he'd send an A-Class hero to scout out the location first, and then send in a capable S-Class. The third, almost the most important of all was…

_'This coffee is really good…'_

* * *

"This is way too big to be a basement, isn't it?" Saitama stared around at the hallway they were walking through that seemed to go on forever. His serious face had long since disappeared, but Mu could still very clearly feel the aura that he was radiating, even if she couldn't see it. "Hey Mu, how longer 'till we find the boss guy? I'm getting kind of bored." He said to the girl with a straight face.

Mu simply shrugged and folded her arms. "I sure as heck don't know. I mean, I knew this whole basement place existed, but I was never really allowed in there. The people at the House didn't really…you know…" She struggled with finding the right words to say, before finally deciding on, "Trust me. Yeah, they didn't trust me." Saitama just nodded at her response and gave a simple,

"Ok." He didn't believe her words one bit, but didn't really care to pry into her life. Besides, he kind of knew the answer by scanning over what had been on the paper.

They continued walking for a few more minutes, and Saitama turned to ask the girl a question. A question that had been biting at the back of his mind – like a really annoying bug, only to notice the girl pinned up against the wall with her figure pressed into it, cracks all around her.

"Mu?" He asked. Silence.

Of course, Saitama had seen the figure coming towards them, but it didn't seem too hard to punch at the speed it was moving…

Ah.

He had forgotten that Mu would've been overwhelmed by it, comparing her senses to his. All he heard was it yelling about getting rid of 'the one on the left' and he had turned around to see Mu in that state.

Regardless of how it had gotten behind him, there it was. It was a ridiculous looking horned rhinoceros beetle type, about 7 or 8 feet tall, with veins running all over its' exoskeleton encased body. He looked extremely strong – or at least, he acted like he was. Saitama's eyes shined with realization, and he brought up a fist and talked before the monster could speak.

"You're Carnage Kabuto, right?' He'd gotten the name right on the first try – courtesy of his growing hope towards what the file had called the 'ultimate weapon of the House'. "Bring it on." The cockroach monster simply grinned a sickening grin, towering over Saitama.

"So you know who I am, eh? Must have seen those files back at the top building. Don't know why this dumbass keeps them files there." The Monster lifted up a bleeding black-haired man in his hand, before tossing him aside to the wall. "We got a combat experiment room down the hall, we can get the thrashing on in there." He gave a pointed gaze to Genus, and an especially venomous one to Mu. "Away from the weaklings, too." Saitama narrowed his eyes and his gloved fist tightened.

"You turned Mu into a swatted mosquito. It's on." He and the bug monster walked off further down the hallway, heading to their destination without pause. A few minutes later, Mu practically peeled herself out of the wall, unsteadily landing on her feet. Her previously long hair had been nearly cut in half, and her body covered with bruises just from the force of Kabuto's hit. Regardless of her condition, she jumped up to her feet and looked to the right, where Saitama and that…thing, had gone.

_'I've got to help Saitama, he can't handle it…'_ She began to walk, only for a hand on her shoulder to stop her in her tracks. She looked behind her with an irritated expression, only for her eyes to widen and for her to back up, and the sight of a suit-wearing, slick-haired scientist. "Genus…" Mu narrowed her eyes at the grinning mad scientist.

"It's good to see that you still remember your creator, Mosquito Girl. A shame, you've lost your evolved form." He moved his hand away just before Mu swatted at it with a very much inhuman hiss. "And still as disobedient as ever. That's why you were nothing but a prototype. Not even fit to be in the top three." He was holding onto his right arm, leaning on the wall for support. "Not to mention, you were worthless, even as mere data to improve Kabuto's fighting capabilities. You simply froze in fear whenever you fought because of your worthless past memories I had tried so hard to erase. Seems that man knocked them back into you, however, along with your inferior form."

Mu lashed out, jumping out at the man. "I've heard all of this before, you damned mad scientist! There was only one reason I came here, and you took advantage of it to turn me into a…" She lowered her eyes. Genus just smiled in return.

"Took advantage? Now, now, let's not be hasty. We both know how much you desired the power I gave you, as limited as it was in my grand scheme." The scientist took another step towards her. "After Kabuto went on his first unstoppable rampage, you were one of the thousands of misplaced citizens who had lost everything. Except, you weren't quite as foolish as the rest of those inferior humans. You realized your weakness, and joined the House when I had begun discreetly searching for test subjects, giving up your humanity to become strong enough to oppose Kabuto. At least you thought so, but I was just using you to gather data." He admitted coldly.

"However, that man…if Carnage Kabuto gets his hands on him, he will prove to be a much more interesting subject than you!" The scientist's grin grew wide, and he limped away, muttering to himself about seeing through the results of his life's work.

His words had left the girl to stand there, staring at the wall in front of her.

_'Saitama, can you…can you really beat him? That monster?'_

* * *

"Pretty big room, right?!" Carnage Kabuto yelled, motioning all around him. The two now stood in a giant white room, full with white walls. It was giant, hard to scale properly, but could easily be the size of a few large buildings but together and some more. "This is the biggest room in the whole facility, where we test our fighting power. Which means.." He grinned and pointed a finger at Saitama from halfway across the room.. "There's plenty of room to kick your ass!"

"Then stop talking and get on with it." Saitama spoke while staring down the beetle, arms folded and cape fluttering from paused movement. "You're raring to go too, right? I can tell." Saitama began to stride towards him. Kabuto laughed, giving the man finger guns.

"Bet your ass I am! That is, if I wasn't gonna be kicking it already! You're supposed to be strong or something huh? Then bring it on, everything you got." He gestured the hero over, the hero who just kept slowly walking to the monster.

"Don't disappoint me now. That piece of paper said that you're the super weapon of this place. I've been expecting an opponent like you for a while now." Saitama narrowed his eyes. Carnage Kabuto gave out a wild laugh and disappeared into the air, reappearing right back on the wall in a burst of speed.

"Then, bring it on. LET'S SEE JUST HOW YOU ARE COMPARED TO THAT WEAKLING MOSQUITO GIRL BACK THERE!" Kabuto shouted, and in a flash, had just appeared again right behind Saitama. He moved in for a punch, only to immediately back away, hundreds of feet away into a wall, away from the caped hero. His bug like wings quickly retreated into his back.

"…Huh?" Saitama looked on curiously at the retreating monster, who was now panting nervously and standing up against the wall. Kabuto pointed out a finger at Saitama with an accusatory glance.

"YOU FREAK OF NATURE! HOW THE HELL…HOW DID YOU GET SO STRONG!" He yelled, pupils small out of pure fear.

_'What the hell…the guy looked determined, like every other dumb shit that tried to challenge me, so I thought he was just gonna get overconfident and get clobbered…but my senses were telling me not to attack him no matter what. It didn't seem like he was ready to kill me yet, but it definitely was gonna happen in an instant if I challenged him head on.' _Kabuto panted heavily, and Saitama was just left there, standing, confused.

"…So, you want to know, do you…?" Saitama asked, tilting his head to the side. Carnage Kabuto just watched with a nervous gaze, clearly meant to egg on the bald man. The caped hero tightened his fist, and resolutely replied:

"No." He crossed his arms in an x-shape. "Trust me dude, all-encompassing power isn't all that it's cracked out to be. It's actually pretty boring." He lowered his arms to his sides, leaving a bewildered Carnage Kabuto to stare at him.

It was a long, awkward 10 seconds, before Kabuto smiled menacingly, and his body began to contort and shake.

"**Fine then…since you ain't gonna spill the beans…" **The beetle monster began to morph, with his horn growing nearly twice its' original length, and his body insanely buffing. His skin turned red, his teeth grew much sharper, and his whole body turned purple, with visible glowing green blood running through his muscles. "**I bet you're not even close to being stronger than me, anyways…!" **

"**CARNAGE MODE!"**

The sound of multiple alarms began to blare through the room, with the walls turning to a bleeding red and two shadows, entered the room. Far from the two stood Mu and Genus. Genus was looking on with wide eyes at Kabuto's transformation, and took a step back in fear.

"Oh god, what have I done? He…he's going to go on another rampage!" The Doctor seemed more concerned for his own well-being than anyone else's. This was in frank comparison to Mu, who stood there, absolutely paralysed. She was hyperventilating, and visibly shaking. She backed up, only to find her back hitting right against the closing metal blast doors, sealing everyone inside the now blood red combat room. She frantically grabbed at the door and tried to rip it open, easily prying the doors apart. However, she was left more like a panicking animal scratching at the doors after a while.

_'I have to get away, have to get away, have to get away…'_ Her thoughts repeated the same pattern, over and over again.

Saitama silently turned to look back at her, gave a small sigh, then looked right back to Kabuto, only to be met with a giant fist in his face, sending him flying a few hundred meters into the air.

"**Hey, HEY?! Who the hell said you could look away?" **The beetle let out a large yell, kicking the airborne Saitama into the bottom of the room, red chunks of the training room flying all over and embedding into the wall like high speed projectiles.

Saitama's body, now flipping over in mid-air was sent high into the ceiling again, where Kabuto appeared all around him, pummelling him from almost all directions almost all at once, leaving Saitama like a ragdoll in the middle to be played around with.

"**After I'm done with you…!" **He brought two of his giants up above his head. **"I'm gonna go on a rampage until next Saturday! I'll go into the cities…and go on a killing spree! Just like last time! A whole week of carnage!" **Saitama was again smashed into the floor, completely destroying the ground. Yet Carnage Kabuto did not relent, jumping down right onto Saitama, then adding a barrage of missile-like punches that pushed his body further and further down, until he was nearly completely buried in the earth.

_'Saitama…'_ Mu turned her head from the door blocks, her hands slowly removing themselves to be at her sides._ 'How…can you have so much power? Enough to face such a terrifying monster? To even think about beating it, I had to become one, myself…'_ She looked down at her returned body, then over at Genus, who had a small smile on his face compared to his previous panic.

"Looks like it's over. Nobody in this world can defeat my perfect creation." His smile wasn't relaxed or content, but manic, as it always had been. Just like when he had brought her in as nothing but a test subject for the House. Used her grudge against Carnage Kabuto against her without her even knowing he was made by the same scientist who claimed to be her only friend. When that same 'only friend' had wiped her memories and sent her out as the blank minded 'Mosquito Girl' who could only think of blood.

She had only known Saitama for a day, even less, and he had treated her as more of a decent human being than Genus ever had or could. He had brought her back to her senses – given her another chance to live and correct the wrongs she had done – agreed to make her strong without taking advantage of her. He…if anyone could defeat that thing, it was him. She wanted to believe that he could.

"Saitama…" Mu's voice started out small, before bursting out into a full-on-shout. "KILL THAT BASTARD ALREADY AND STOP FOOLING AROUND!" Her fists were balled up, and she had forced all of the fear out her for that one scream. Last time, nobody had been around to stop this monster from destroying her friends – her home – her family – everyone she loved. But now…now there was a hero in front of her who she could actually believe in. One with power so ridiculous that he could easily break apart this monster. At least, that's what she believed. This caused Genus to look at her with an incredulous look, the man adjusting his glasses with his still functional left hand.

"Looks like your mind has finally destabilised. Look at how he's getting beat up. There's no way that-"

A low rumbling erupted from the ground beneath them. Kabuto's fists stopped, and the monster looked confused for half a second, before his face was blown clean off, along with the entirety of his body. Saitama erupted from the hole without a single scratch on him, and his face blank as ever.

"He was actually kinda strong…but still not strong enough. Just like always..." He mumbled, stepping out onto what remained of the floor and dusting off his belt.

"Guess it's to the supermarket after all. Hey Mu, you coming? They've got deals that are only one per customer, but I could get way more if I have someone to use – uuuuh, I mean, a partner…?" He scratched his cheek with a finger.

Both Mu and Genus were left standing in complete and utter shock. Genus' glasses and suit were nearly falling off him with his eyes and mouth gaped wide. Mu had a different kind of shock – a shock at seeing her life's worst nightmare killed in front of her eyes by a single punch – followed up by a nonchalant blatant usage of her present for bargain mart deals. She shook her head and appeared at Saitama's side in a burst of speed.

"Sure, this place was getting cramped anyways. The hatch should be right back-" She was interrupted by Saitama punching a large hole in the wall and speed-jogging right through it. Mu blinked twice, before following behind him in a small jog of her own, much more energetic than when they had arrived.

Genus just sniffled while watching the two go, falling back right onto his rear. "I guess this is my sign to stop playing around with evolution…" His smile relaxed into something much more content, free from the burdens of his torturous scientific mind and deeds. The smile of a man ready to leave his old life behind and start anew. "Since it seems like I am the one who has to change…"

* * *

"Say, Saitama…?" Mu looked at the caped man, who was nonchalantly jogging without breaking a sweat.

"Yeah?" He answered without looking her way.

"Why…didn't you kill me? Most heroes don't hold back against monsters, and you didn't know I was originally human, either…so what was the point?" She asked, gaze on the ground.

"Well…" Saitama looked up at the beautiful orange setting sun for a few moments, before answering, "You weren't really like a monster to me. Yeah, you looked weird and tried to kill me, but every monster does that. Monsters never usually get scared before I punch them though. They always get cocky and just go out of control. You actually tried to run though. That was different." His last words surprised Mu, the girl not having expected him to have noticed her emotions in that instance. He might not have realised it, but even without her memories back then, she could clearly remember that one thought breaking through. "I just kinda guessed you weren't doing the monster thing on purpose. What type of monster can't even explain why they're on a rampage anyway? That's like a bad telemarketer."

"I'd feel kinda bad punching you if you actually regretted your actions, so I just let you off with a warning. That gorilla guy was pretty normal too, when he wasn't trying to be all robotic and stuff. It just looked to me like you two got caught up in a crappy situation."

He looked over to her. "I might not care about fighting anymore, but I'm still a hero for my hobby. And killing monsters isn't the only job." He finished. Mu spoke quietly.

"And...what if you were wrong?" She said unsurely. This question received a more immediate answer.

"Then I would've punched you." He then turned his gaze forward and began speeding up. "Let's kick up the pace. The store closes at 6 and I'm gonna get pissed if we don't make it in time."

His words left her speechless, causing her to raise her gaze at his back and watch his silhouette near fade into the sunset.

_'Saitama…if it means that I can stop people from going what I went through…I think I'm going to become a hero. A fearless and powerful one, just like you.'_ She kicked her legs into high gear and began to catch up to him with a frown.

"HEY! Don't just leave me in your dust trail like that!"

* * *

"This is insane." Bearded Worker moved around the scene, passing by workers wearing protective suits while they moved about the area, holding machines that searched the ground. It was where the House of Evolution was supposed to be, according to Zombieman's directions.

"Indeed." Another man spoke only a few feet away from him, a man of similar stature with hazel eyes and parted hazel hair. He wore the same black and white suit of the Hero Association workers, and stepped across a particularly broken piece of building. "The building was not incinerated, exploded, or brought down using weak spots." He readjusted his silver round-framed glasses then moved to stand besides the Bearded Worker.

"We would've thought that that young cyborg that's been popping up recently would've been the culprit here, considering his vicious targeting of various evil organizations, but he was not involved in the demon-level accident last week, and neither was he here, by the looks of things." Bearded Worker knelt, a small bit of sweat dropping down his face at his own words.

"Yes…and the most worrying thing of all is that it seems to have been done with blunt force, more than anything." The Bespectacled Worker looked out towards the shape carved into the cliff. "The workers have deduced that it was most likely a punch." These words brought Bearded Worker to his feet, with a boggled expression.

"A punch? That's-"

"That's very interesting." A voice spoke from behind them, both men turning around to see a woman standing confidently tall, arms folded and eyes narrowed. She had a white fur coat thrown over her shoulder, and a form-fitting dark green dress that covered her whole body. Bearded Worker cleared his throat and turned to her.

"The Blizzard of Hell, Fubuki…thank you for arriving as a part of the scouting team. You may not officially be an A-Class, but we at the Hero Association recognize your true abilities. But, it seems like the problem has already been handled by another…an unidentified hero." He gave a small bow to her and motioned his hand out towards the gap in the cliff. Fubuki's eyes trailed behind him, and she frowned. Partly at the scene in front of her, partly for missing her chance to witness such a scene of power, and partly at losing her chance to further cement herself at the top of the B-Class by undertaking such a prestigious mission.

"Well, this is a problem. A vigilante out and about, with this much power…" She took a few steps out past the rubble, with Bearded Worker and the Bespectacled Worker following closely behind. "And this was the organization said to hold that city-destroying monster, Carnage Kabuto." The woman, despite her aura of confidence, visibly shuddered while looking closely upon the scene.

"That's right. Whoever did this must be on par with an S-Class hero. But, we have no clue on who they could be." Bearded Worker admitted with a frown. "Any information on the culprit is completely lost to us. All we can guess is that this person is the same one who dealt with Mosquito Girl in such an unfathomable manner." He looked to Fubuki. "If I could ask, do you have any sort of information regarding this?"

Fubuki's eyes continued to scan the scene, and she slightly leaned back before shaking her head. "No." She began, and then turned her gaze to the sky, speaking her next words with an indescribable sort of reluctance.

_'Should I really reveal this information to the Association before looking into it for myself, first…? No, I'll take the safe route and use that annoying connection to my sister to my advantage.'_

"I have reason to believe, however, that my sister might."

* * *

Saitama suddenly sat up at the dining table, causing Mu to jump back in surprise, right into the wall behind her. The two bowls of ramen that sat in front of them shook, and the now short-haired girl blinked at him.

"Why the hell would you move so suddenly?! Are you trying to get me burned or something?" She grimaced, rubbing the spot on her head for a second before moving it down.

"No…." Saitama spoke with grave seriousness. "I just felt a premonition…like…I'm about to have to deal with a huge pain in the ass."

…

"Just shut up and eat your ramen, Saitama." Mu spoke, with a tired expression.

"Ok. Thanks for the food." He leaned down and began to eat, too.

"Oh crap, this stuff is actually kinda good."

* * *

**And that's the Third Punch. I'll be honest, this one took long to think on. Lots of ideas and stuff I was thinking on. **

**Anywaaaaay...I hope you enjoyed this chapter. And geez, I didn't expect so much people to like this story, honestly. I just thought of it on a whim. But thank you for your attention. See you in the Fourth Punch!**

**Review Question of the Day: Do you ship anyone in One Punch Man with Saitama? If yes, who are they? If no, why not? I personally don't ship anyone with the OFFICIAL Saitama. Why? It just doesn't make sense for him to have a romantic relationship in ONE's original narrative, you know? That's how I feel. **


	4. The Fourth Punch

**Jesus, it's been a while. Yet, my story has so many favorites and follows. I feel sort of like a betrayer for not posting for nearly a whole year, but...I think it's safe to say that I'm back. I'll hopefully have more to say at the bottom and in the next chapter, so enjoy reading!**

Actions/Misc

"Dialogue"

_'Thoughts'_

* * *

Saitama scratched at his scalp, giving out a short yawn. He was watching the television, staring at the flashing colours passing by with a bored expression. He leaned back against the wall. "Say," He looked out of the living room towards the kitchen, where there was visible steam floating out. The distinct smell of eggs was in the air. "When's that food gonna be ready?"

"Soon enough. And, couldn't you just try to sound the tiniest bit enthusiastic? I bet all you eat is super-simple dishes, so be grateful I'm even making something for you!" Mu's trademark overconfident tone echoed through the small apartment in response. This left Saitama scratching at his shirt this time.

'_She's pretty amped up for something as simple as scrambled eggs…' _Saitama thought, with another yawn escaping his lips.

"Can't blame me for being hungry." Came Saitama's reply. He promptly turned his attention back to the television. The channel changed from the continuously running cartoons to the news, causing Saitama to hum. He was about to change the channel before Mu came in with two plates of food, both scrambled eggs with some sort of fancy seasoning and pieces of a pretty delicious looking meat mixed in. "Oh. Thanks, I guess." He took the plate and began to eat, turning attention away from Mu to stare straight at the television again. Mu just huffed in response before going to eating her own plate.

"I was thinking…" Saitama looked up and over to the short-haired girl. "We'll start the whole training thing tomorrow. After fighting that Carnage Kabuto guy, I'm kinda done with monsters for a while, so I might as well find something else to do." These words brought a smile to Mu's face, but she couldn't help but feel annoyed that the beginning of her training was just an afterthought to him.

"Great! This means I get a chance to show you just what this form is made of." Her ominous words and stare were completely missed by the bald man, who gave a small,

"Hm." Before going back to what he was originally doing. She watched him closely as he moved his gaze away from her to look on the news that was on.

_'Saitama always looks so unmotivated…'_ She was now back to her plate, finally meditating on the one thought that had been bugging her most about the bald man. _'I've seen him look serious, maybe get angry, a little impatient, but never anything more than that. Not unless he's talking about fighting a potentially strong opponent. I wonder if he was always like this…'_ Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of cracking that suddenly erupted, Mu's eyes immediately tracking the source – Saitama's hands. His chopsticks were cracked in half, held tightly in his fingers.

"What's wrong, now? Another random vision of the future about ass pains? You're not going to jail any time soon, you know?" She reminded with an exasperated voice. Instead of giving a reply, Saitama simply stood and walked towards the apartment door with his plate already empty.

"I'm going out for a while. Watch the apartment." Was all that she was would get out of him, before Saitama just left.

_'The heck happened to him…?'_ Her head turned towards the television. What she saw made her eyes widen – and made a large laugh escape from her lips. _'He got pissed over something as small as this? He's still a little bit human, after all.'_

On the television were artist renditions of a group of bald criminals, all wearing stupid looking black suits that had a flame symbol on them. There was large text at the top of the screen that read:

"If you see any of these men while at large, please do not approach them, and call your local authorities."

Mu looked down at the floor, her laugh slowly dying out and turning into a sigh. "More human than me, at least…" Her hands fell from the table and instead took up the space in her lap.

While she wasn't a monster anymore, not in form, anyways, Mu still clearly felt it some nights. The innocent blood she had shed during her short reign as a monster in the outside world. Screams of people, and buildings destroyed. If Saitama hadn't been there to stop her, she might've gone further – crossed a line that should never have been crossed. A line that she never set out to cross. Just because Genus had erased her mind and sent her out with orders to go wild – could she really be innocent? Even if it wasn't her mind, it was her body, and her abilities that had gone wild. Maybe if she had just died from Carnage Kabuto's first rampage, or if Saitama had chosen to kill her just then…

With a final sigh, she got up from the table and headed for the door. She had to get her mind off of those thoughts. There was something more important to do in Saitama's absence.

It was time for a visit to the doctor.

* * *

"Can't believe that guy was trying to play rock paper scissors with a booger on his finger. First the subterranean dream, and then that…? It's like my own mind's out to get me. More successfully than anything else can do it, too." Saitama mumbled, while walking through the empty inner limits of City F and into the forest that melded into the cityscape. It was quiet, much quieter than when he had initially come speeding (speedwalking) in and gotten called a terrorist by every person that saw him.

Lost in his thoughts as usual, Saitama didn't notice when a giant figure was looming over him, until he bumped right into it. This prompted him to look up, finding a large, armoured bald man standing there. He had, like…some sort of knife thing sticking out the back of his head, and was wearing one of the suits Saitama saw on TV. This led the caped hero to recognize him. The leader of the Paradisers, Hammerhead.

Saitama's expression became completely serious.

"So you're one of those paradiser guys the TV was talking about, huh? Sorry to say, but I have to take you out right here and now. 'Cause if I don't, then-"

"**DIE!"** The paradiser yelled, bringing his right fist forward with tremendous power behind it. A shockwave boomed across the entirety of the forest, the power taking a second to even hit Saitama. Massive clouds of dust flew through the area, obscuring everything from sight for miles. Mountains of dirt flew up even further behind the collision, trailing high into the clouds.

Hammerhead pulled back his fist, with some red flames on his outfit slowly dulling in their colour, his battle armour powering down with a weak whir. "That was too close. First that ninja wannabe, then the cyborg dude, and now-"

"Ah…for a second there, I got a little too serious." Saitama sighed, and when the dust cleared – there he was, standing perfectly unharmed. "Looks like I was sorta worried about nothing, though." The caped baldy slowly raised a fist, causing the armoured man to take a quick step back, eyes widened.

"S-So you actually survived that, huh? Well, lucky for you, I was actually waiting for this…a chance to test out the full power of this suit!" The flames along the outer armour of the suit began to flare, and the man within buffed up to unimaginable levels, his buff form far exceeding the limits of a human, reaching into the territory of the supernatural…into the territory of a monster. All the while, he kept yelling straight into the sky, arms held out for what had to be an ultimate attack.

Saitama looked on with a blank face, completely unimpressed.

"**SPIN ATT-**h…huh?** "** Hammerhead, in the middle of some big wind-up attack hadn't even noticed when his armour had been broken off of him. He slowly looked down, only to see Saitama standing there with a bored expression and an outstretched elbow. He'd just shattered this over-expensive battle suit he'd stolen, which took months to figure out how to steal, and apparently costed millions of dollars to make, in just a single…elbow hit? Even left naked, all the giant of a man could do was slump his shoulders and sigh, completely depressed at the uselessness of all of his plans. There really was no space for slackers in society.

"Don't be bad anymore, ok." Saitama walked away into the forest, from the same spot he'd come from. As the emotionless figure of Saitama disappeared into the tree line ahead, all the now-naked Hammerhead could do was watch as the hero faded away, cape fluttering in the faint breeze.

"Heh…how the hell can I keep doing this if monsters like him, that robot guy, and the wannabe ninja are out here? I should just get a job after all…" Hammerhead sighed, and ran his way in the opposite direction of Saitama.

_'Robot guy…?'_ Saitama just barely managed to pick up on Hammerhead's words, and instinctively turned his head to the sky. Somewhere, far, far away, he could easily pick up the sight of two figures engaged in battle. One was a blonde looking cyborg, and was some sort of girly looking dude in a skin-tight suit, both suspended in the air and trading blows quicker than any eye could see…well, to regular people, at least. To Saitama, they looked like they were in slow motion. Neither were monsters, too…and nobody was in the immediate area that could get hurt, seeing as that weaker Hammerguy had left. Plus, they were evenly matched, so it'd definitely be a draw between the two fighters.

_'Not interested…'_ He shook his head after his quick assessment and skulked off, completely ignoring the seemingly intense man-vs-machine battle occurring in the background.

Besides…he'd already gotten rid of the leader of the fakers stealing his look anyways, so it was time to go home. He'd probably do his daily exercises first, though...

* * *

In a small portion of the cities somewhere, a very simple, but respectably sized takoyaki shop stood, tucked away neatly into one of the buildings alongside the road. Within, two were working at their newly acquired craft. The former mad-scientist genius, Dr. Genus, alongside with one of his only remaining creations, Armoured Gorilla. Both seemed to be on break, as absolutely no customers were coming in to their shop. Genus sat, bored, in one of the booths, with Armoured Gorilla leaning against the counter. The Gorilla let out a deep sigh.

"No customers again today…I guess people are having a hard time adjusting to a shop opening up out of nowhere. I mean…and we have so much ingredients to use, too. Let's try some advertising tomorrow." The Gorilla spoke, even suggesting his own idea at the end

'_Compared to science, this is challenging in its' own way…'_ Genus muttered, tilting his head to the side, bringing a set of folded arms onto his table.

Disrupting the men's boredom, however, a small jingle rang throughout the shop, as someone walked in. Both Genus and Gorilla stood up straight, slowly turning to look and greet what was hopefully the day's first customer. It was a girl, clearly young, wearing a red shirt and black jeans, shoulder-length black hair swaying behind her.

"Ah…" Genus hadn't expected today, of all the things to happen, to be greeted with one of his oldest experiments – the mosquito girl. Or, as she called herself now…

"Mu, eh?" Genus sighed and slowly walked back over to the table he had been sitting at. "A disappointment. I thought we'd finally gotten a chance to maybe get some word-of-mouth advertising from today's customer, but it was just you, huh?"

The usually sassy mosquito girl turned human simply quietly walked her way through the seating hall, making her way towards Gorilla and Genus without a single word. The doctor couldn't help but break out into an involuntary cold sweat, with Gorilla gulping and looking ready to flee, remembering their past battle.

Genus couldn't leave, though. He had already made up his mind – he'd messed with so many people's lives in the selfish pursuit of his experimentation, so if one of his creations actually did decide to pursue him for revenge…he had no right to beg for his life over the one he'd stolen from them.

As usual, Mu looked at the two with completely cold eyes, now standing literally beside Genus' table. She slid in the chair opposite of him, and looked the man straight into his eyes, unflinching. Before, when she'd have mere nervous breakdowns thinking of the institute, she couldn't feel scared anymore, backed up by Saitama's reassuring, silent strength.

"Doctor…" She spoke slowly, with her hands raising up from below the table, the atmosphere suddenly darkening all around. Genus gave his final prayer to whatever deities were out there, and Gorilla got ready to hike it for his life…until Mu sighed, releasing all the tension in her shoulders with her hands finally resting on the table.

"Listen, I don't trust you one bit. Not after what you've done to my life, my family, my friends, and to me. "Her hands gripped hard against the table's edge, shaking in the strength of their grip. "But, even if you've done some more than shitty things in the past, that's in the past. And right now, I don't need to be stuck in the past. I need…I need to become stronger. Not for revenge this time, but to stand by the side of my new friend, and to pave my own path. If I can become a hero that's just like Saitama, maybe even better, then, I feel like…like I can make up for everything I've ever did. Everything that **we** ever did, at the House." Her eyes closed shut tightly.

'_I…I need to say it now, or nothing will ever change!' _Her mind shouted out desperately, as her hatred and fear threatened to override her request.

"You're the only person I know that can help me get stronger. Even if I can never bring myself to fully forgive you, and that might never really change, I need to ask just one thing. The only thing I'll ever ask from you." She slowly bowed her head, sending both Genus and Gorilla reeling with shocked faces. Desperation and nervousness wracked the girl's voice, as she summoned all of her willpower and determination to form her next words.

"Can…can you help me?" She asked, eyes shaking with nothing but complete and utter desperation.

'_This girl…'_ Genus was unable to form thoughts for a while after that.

This girl, knowing how she'd been betrayed, would be handing him, the man who ruined her life, the ability to make or break the second chance she'd been miraculously handed, even with all of those factors in play. That's how desperate she was to change – that's how much she wanted to accomplish her new goal. He could see no hatred or want for revenge in her eyes, like he had seen before, and used against her. Now…her eyes looked clearer than ever.

'_Good grief, the speed of change in this girl…like I thought, evolution is just too interesting to look away from.' _That was all the doctor could think of.

Genus was left completely stunned by the woman's speech, looking completely confused, while sitting in his seat. His eyes then took on a serious look, and he motioned to Gorilla with a nod. The monster shuffled over to the door and closed it, along with any windows in the establishment, turning the 'open' sign to 'closed'.

"Mu. I gave up on evolutionary science, because I thought that it was trapping me in the past and warping me. No, I knew. Deep down, I always did know. But I was too condescending to realize it."

The doctor stood up, making his way from the booth and heading straight for the back room of the restaurant. Mu and Gorilla slowly but surely followed, with the trio taking a discreet staircase down below the shop that led up to a regular looking door, with a whole heap of dust on it. There was only irregularity: that being a keypad placed beside the knob. Genus entered in a series of numbers, before it opened, allowing all three entrance inside. The dust wafted away from the door, opening into a seemingly empty room.

"This time, instead of using you to fulfil my dreams, I'll allow myself to be used to fulfil yours. At the very least, this is all I can do for you, Mu." Genus flipped on the switch and walked into the room, turning only to look back at the two monst…no, former monsters. Within was all the futuristic technology needed for research from the House built in, minus the ominous security systems and torture devices and documents. Scanners, DNA Injectors, Quantum Supercomputers, only the best of the best for one of the smartest and well-funded doctors around.

Mu and Gorilla looked absolutely astounded. Even the gorilla hadn't known that all this was under here when he moved in. Dr. Genus hadn't even touched downstairs.

"Perhaps I should allow myself a short renaming…no longer will we be the House of Evolution. No, we will be the Home of Revolution!" He exclaimed, holding up a fist to the air. Gorilla smiled, looking pleased at the revival of the doctor, and in the same good way that he had intended to be. Mu, however, broken out of her awe now, was just snickering away at the new name, causing both Genus and Gorilla to look at her in utter confusion.

"W-What's wrong? Is it not to your liking?" Genus asked, worriedly. Still not used to the whole thing about 'opinions', and such.

"Maybe she finds the situation ironic?" Gorilla spoke, scratching the top of his head with a comically oversized figure. This action only caused Mu's laughing to sustain longer, and, without even knowing why she was laughing, both Gorilla and Genus could help at least joining in on the laughter, with the trio now having a short laugh break, Mu only spoke up after a few good seconds of chuckling.

"No, it's just…Saitama's first name for you guys totally ended up coming true." She wiped a tear from her eye, and was left with a small smile. "Well, I'm going to be using these facilities all I want, doc! And you get absolutely nothing in exchange!" Mu made her way to the center of the room, ready to finally become a fully new, improved her.

* * *

"_Ah-choo!_" Saitama rubbed his nose, giving a disgruntled groan. "Feels like somebody's talking behind my back." He couldn't help but think of his new annoying roommate, the monster turned human, Mu. Frankly, Saitama didn't even know that it was possible for monsters to do that. Did all humans-turned-monsters have that chance?

Saitama simply sighed and shook his head, dismissing his wandering thoughts. Now out of the forest, he was already pretty much deeply on his way home…only to spot the same supermarket from before, when he had fought the giant beefed-up monster. He perked up a little bit, noticing that it was now repaired.

"Cool. Might go and buy something different for dinner tonight." He spoke, while approaching the store, slowly entering in and looking around. It was surprisingly quiet inside, with only a few customers shuffling in and out. He hummed, grabbing himself a basket and entering through the aisles to get straight to the back, where the freezers were. Of course, he went straight for the meat section. With another disappointment like today to add to his pile, he needed something to cheer himself up.

Plus, there was cheap meat on sale. Sales were always good.

"Ah man, this is more relaxing than usual." Saitama was now immersed in the world of peaceful sales, different from the cutthroat stampeding ones that he was used to…not that he wasn't confident in the battlefield of sale-getting. He was still a step behind the competitive grandmas that occasionally rushed to stores like these, though. With his thoughts wandering, he hadn't even noticed that both he and another person had reached for a container of meat at the same time. He looked up only to see a woman in some sort of form-fitting dress, floating in the air as if it were the most normal thing in the world, and a bunch of suited guys behind her. All of them were giving him a pretty mean look, as if he'd just committed the world's worst crime.

"Excuse me, I believe that I got to this first." The floating lady spoke up first, slowly pulling it away from him.

"…eh? Uhhhhh…" He slowly looked to the guys behind her, and then back to the woman, and then down to the meat, and sighed. "Well, whatever. You can have it, lady." Saitama shrugged, immediately going to pick up another cheap piece on sale and completely ignoring the spark of conflict. "I wonder what Mu can make with this stuff…" He muttered, and stowed the meat away into his grocery basket. He turned around from the freezer, only to see the group of suited men surrounding him, holding out things like a staff – oh, there was a girl holding the staff – and the usual bare fists, and…eyelash curlers?" Saitama had to tilt his head on seeing that.

"Hold it there, you!" The big, bare-fisted one spoke up. "You dare to treat the Blizzard of Hell, Lady Fubuki, the Rank 1 B-Class hero, with such insolence?!" He yelled, drawing the attention of the few people in the store. Saitama sighed once more, and gave a dismissive wave to the guy's face.

"I didn't even ask about all that stuff…anyways, I don't even know about all that. Blizzard of Hell? Are you guys some sort of group of working men or something trying to get some stress out?" He asked, completely clueless at the holdup going on.

"So, you fancy yourself a comedian, do you?" A smooth, silky voice came from behind the surrounding circle of the two men and single woman, all three of which parted to allow the figure to show herself again. The same girl from before, the one wearing the super tight dress and…wow, was that a whole fur coat on her? He didn't remember seeing that before.

"Sorry, but, I really have to get going. Not sure what you guys are trying to do here, but I'm hungry, bored, and trying to check out before the store closes." Saitama spoke blankly, again ignoring the identified Fubuki to try and make his way to the front of the store. He was only a few steps out of the circle, before Saitama could hear rushing footsteps behind him, with each of the bodyguards approaching from three different directions.

"A low-class ridiculous outfit-wearing baldie like you ignore me?! I'll have my men teach you a lesson!" She pointed a finger at the suited hero, who was only left with his mouth very slightly agape as the three approached him, all attacking at once….and Saitama not budging one bit.

"Come on, guys. We're in a store. Try to be a little bit more reasonable about this, okay? Adults don't go around in those old style yakuza-type groups, calling people baldies." Saitama spoke, simply shrugging off all three of the members, leaving Fubuki wide-eyed. Before she could respond, Saitama was already walking off, approaching the cash register and leaving the three suited people behind, all splayed out on the ground and dazed.

_'Got a little pissed for a second there.'_ Saitama mentally noted, with the baldie comment having gotten right to him in particular. Getting insulted and attacked by strangers, even good-looking ones, was not an enjoyable experience. Not for Saitama, anyways. Maybe there was some person out there who'd actually like that sort of thing.

Saitama approached the register, slowly placing the grocery basket down on the register and putting down his things on the register, ignoring the hushed whisperings and stares of the people in the store. He was used to things like this by now. He affixed the cashier with what could've been seen as an apologetic look, and gave a small bow of his head.

"Sorry. Didn't mean to cause too much trouble. Ah…Naomi, is it? " He spoke, completely missing the fact that the woman at the register was one he'd seen before – the girl who'd made fun of his bald head just before he'd fought that giant beefcake of a monster. He managed to pick up her name from her employee name card, though. "How much is it?" He asked, looking up to her from his yen purse.

The girl – Naomi – couldn't help but stare at Saitama for a few seconds. He'd completely shrugged off attacks from the second and third B-Ranked heroes, Eyelashes and Mountain Ape, along with Lily, not as powerful as the previous two, but still strong in her own right. Yet, he didn't even have an idea about _that_ Blizzard of Hell, Fubuki? Still, if she was actually right about him being the real one to take down the muscle monster from that day, then it was no surprise. In that case, maybe he was connected to the Tornado of Terror's sudden request for footage…? She wanted to think about this some more, but, there was still a line piling up behind him, and Naomi was still on her job, curiosity or not. And if there's anything she wasn't, it was an irresponsible worker!

"T-That'll be 1,000 yen!" She managed to get out, and accepted the money that he handed her, putting it right into the register. "Um, sir…if you don't mind, maybe you might be interested in this?" Along with her receipt, she handed him a very small flyer, with the emblem of the Hero Association shown on the front. "I believe that something like this would appeal to you very much. Ask for me if you do decide that you're interested!" She said quickly, and then gave a small bow of his head. "Well, thank you for your purchase with us. Please have a good night." The woman then turned her attention to other customers, as Saitama slowly walked his way out into the night sky.

**"The Hero Association. Make the most of your talents for humanity, and get paid for doing it."**

_'Huh…this could be a little interesting. Didn't even know something like that existed.'_ Saitama thought. He couldn't help himself from thinking back to the armoured guy he'd beaten. He was unemployed too, just like Saitama. And they looked so similar, too… _'I wonder if that's where I could've been if I'd chosen not to be a hero.'_ He couldn't help but ponder this possibility for a second, before humming and stowing away the flyer into his shopping bags. He took a moment and went about planting his feet firmly into the ground before inhaling and then blasting off into the air.

"Maybe a change of pace is just what I need."

Soon after, Fubuki slowly emerged from the shop on her own afterwards, watching the hero's silhouette disappear into the night sky. She'd thought of using her psychic powers to pull him down and show him a lesson…but she couldn't even feel her powers budging him, not even while his guard was down and he was so easily sailing through the air. Whoever that man…or thing, was…she absolutely needed him on her side. Especially before her sister could get to him. He had to be the one…

The man who had single-handedly destroyed _that_ House of Evolution. What she was more interested in though, was just why…

_'How could a man so powerful look so...bored?'_ The Blizzard of Hell was left at a loss, as the night chill began to settle in. This man would be more than just an asset, but a veritable enigma to disassemble. That was for later, though. With a sigh, she returned back to the inside of the store to pick up her underlings. Beaten or not, they were still members of the respectable Fubuki group, and it wouldn't do to have them lying around on the floor of a supermarket all night. Soon enough, though, if all went well, her group might not have to shop at such cheap stores unbefitting of her status…

"Just you wait, sister. I'll finally shut your pompous mouth up once and for all."

* * *

**A vicious line from Fubuki. I guess this is where you could say the story really begins to diverge. Sonic instead meets Genos within the forest, Hammerhead is beaten without an ounce of consideration, and Saitama is slowly coming to be known. As the ultimate supermarket man, that is.**

**Again, sorry for the length of time it took to push this out, but thank you for sticking in there, anyone still reading this. I'm a really bad writer when it comes to deadlines and consistency, haha. I hope to improve this more in the future, though. Slipping is officially back on the hanger! Although twelfth grade work might get in the way.**

**Review Question of the Day: If you were in Saitama's position, how do you think you would handle it?**

**Personally, I'd feel the same way. I've kind of always liked escaping from reality, so the thought that I'd be as cool and strong as Saitama would be awesome...until it's basically the same outlook every day. If I could choose, I'd rather be like tracksuit/training Saitama forever, instead of superhero costume/present Saitama. I'd love to see how challenging of a fight Boros would be for Saitama before his hair fell out.**


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